How Do We Evaluate Progress?

There is a real problem of students under pressure to earn good grades, rather than actually learning. I agree with Alphie Kohn, who explains that we must improve our methods of grading in order to alleviate this problem. According to Kohn, the way to do this is to acknowledge that learning is subjective rather than a quantifiable objective. While grading rubrics purport to be a step in the right direction because of their level of detail, they, too, are objective in nature. As Kohn writes, "We have to reassess the whole enterprise of assessment."

Still, there must be evaluations of students' progress. There has to be an objective way to group students based on ability, or the more slowly learning kids inhibit the growth of the advanced ones, which is a detriment to everyone involved. What we have to do is find a way to balance the two sides. But without a better alternative, a rubric seems the way to go, for now.