How Grades Harm Students & What We Can Do About It w/ Joshua Eyler

If education had a Hippocratic Oath - First, do no harm - grades and grading would be among the first practices on the chopping block.

And in the conversation about grades and grading in school, there are any number of books and blogs educators can look to for figuring out how to de-grade, un-grade, Hack Assessment, and so on, to mitigate the harm grading causes. After all, as these books and blogs reveal, it’s a system educators have a surprising amount of control over. But what about parents who see it weighing on their own kids and young people who feel the weight of the grading system themselves? How do we communicate the real consequences of grades and grading, especially on youth mental health, and the need for change to those on the outside looking in? And what can parents do to help kids who are navigating outmoded grading systems?

“Supporting a child who is trying to navigate an educational system that privileges grades and achievement begins, simply, with compassion and love,” my guest today writes, “When children believe that their worth as human beings has nothing to do with the grades they receive, and when they know that the love of their family comes without conditions, they are better able to cope with the negative messages that grades can so often send.”

Joshua Eyler runs the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning and is a clinical assistant professor of teacher education at the University of Mississippi. His latest book is absolutely full of insight for people trying to change the system, we’re talking about Failing Our Future: How Grades Harm Students, and What We Can Do About It, currently available from Johns Hopkins University Press.