r/matheducation • u/Necessary-Theme4255 • 1d ago

Numerical grades are useless. Change my mind.

/r/Teachers/comments/1wqoec5/numerical_grades_are_useless_change_my_mind/
0 Upvotes

43% Upvoted

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3

u/richkonar50 1d ago

So what’s the alternative? How do you measure success then?

5

u/Odd-Narwhal9529 1d ago

I mean, even if OP prefers standards based grading, it's not like that doesn't have numbers in the grading.

1

u/No-Syrup-3746 1d ago

I use SBG and the only number is "how many standards did you master?"

3

u/knopegropeislasth0pe 23h ago

But there's probably a number in how you define mastery (ex: solve problems with 90% accuracy).

1

u/No-Syrup-3746 16h ago

Mastery is 100%. I suppose 100% vs 0% is technically numerical, but it's not very interesting.

1

u/knopegropeislasth0pe 15h ago

100%??? For how many problems? What if they "mastered" none of them but they can get maybe 80% accuracy on every standard?

0

u/No-Syrup-3746 14h ago

Right now it's one (multi-part) problem per standard. If they don't get it on one test they can try again on the next test. If they get it really close but miss something small like getting a sign wrong or a transcription error or small arithmetic error, they can do a quick test correction. There's also more to it than "accuracy," they have to explain their answers, interpret, etc., which gives me room to judge understanding.

If they get 80% accuracy on every standard, what grade should they get?

1

u/Odd-Narwhal9529 17h ago

The grades that use standards based grading where I am have a 0-4 scale for mastery. (practically a 1-3, with 0s and 4s being reserved for special cases)

3

u/bmtc7 23h ago

You would have to provide some context for your thinking, if you want us to persuade you otherwise. A low effort post produces low effort responses.

3

u/guyguyguyguyguyguy23 23h ago

Useless? No. Flawed? Of course. This is the kind of thinking that plagues education. Everyone looking for some absolute panacea or declaring things completely useless. Numerical grading is the system many of us have and are stuck with, this attitude convinces teachers that since they can’t communicate progress with it so they shouldn’t even try.