I really ought to read the original piece instead of just the Slashdot excerpt, but I tried that, and it just made me even more angry, and I don’t think it would change my response.

I’m not opposed to doing away with grades, but I’m not convinced by hand-wringing about grade inflation. Grades do need to be meaningful to be useful, but the idea that As need to be reserved for an elite few speaks less to meritocracy (referenced in the full piece) than to a need for an elite.

I don’t necessarily claim that my classes are this way (I worry a lot about whether my grading and assessment are doing the trick), but what if widespread As in a class represent that we’ve successfully taught what we need to?

There are a lot of assumptions about grading in these kinds of attitudes that need challenging—or at least justification.

• teaching
• grading
• assessment