Calling on educators to abandon grades and other forms of reward or punishment in schools, Alfie Kohn, author of Punished by Rewards, delivered a lecture titled "From Degrading to De-Grading" before an enthusiastic standing-room-only crowd.
After decades of research showing that "grades are neither valid nor reliable measures," Kohn said that many educators are looking at more authentic assessments. But many still see assessment as a reward system, which he argued inhibits students' intrinsic motivation to learn.
- Sorting—Schools that sort students "like potatoes" serve the needs of a competitive economy and society, he said, but destroy children's love of learning.
- Motivation—Kohn said it is "simply false" that one person can motivate another. Children do not need to be motivated to learn, he believes. Rather, schools must change their practices so that they do not undermine young children's inherent interest.
"The research on this topic challenges our most basic beliefs," he said. "Extrinsic motivators tend to undermine intrinsic motivation. The more you reward somebody for something, the less interest they show in whatever it is that you are rewarding."
- Eliminating grades.
- Replacing grades with assessments that inform students, rather than punishing or rewarding them. "Students should be protected from constant pressure to think, `How am I doing?' even if the form of assessment is benign." Such assessments should also be used for evaluating educators, not just students.
- Creating a "caring community," free from competition among students. Competition forces students to think "other people are obstacles to my success," and under those conditions, "you can kiss community goodbye," he said.
Acknowledging that many educators who agree with him are stuck with grading systems for the present, Kohn offered advice to limit the "damage" grading causes. "We have to do everything in our power to help students forget that grades exist," he said.
- Don't grade any particular piece of work. Instead, give grades at the end of a project or term.
- Cut down the number of different grades given to include fewer ranks. For example, that could mean using satisfactory/unsatisfactory marks, or insisting that "either it's an A or it's incomplete."
- Don't give separate grades for effort. A student who gets a high effort grade but a low achievement grade can only conclude he or she is inherently deficient. And a student who gets a high achievement score with a low effort score knows not to try hard in the future.
- Don't interrupt learning to give grades. "Pop quizzes should be illegal," he quipped.
- Never grade on a curve. Kohn believes grading curves are "one of the most immoral practices in American education," pitting students against each other and destroying collaboration and community.
- Bring students into the process. Students should help decide what is assessed, when, and why.
Kohn described these steps as stopgap measures, arguing that ultimately educators must accept that reward systems are not just ineffective for student learning, but fundamentally counterproductive.
