If there was still a teeny-tiny part of me not convinced to get rid of points and letter grades, it has been eradicated after this experience.
The class started with 12 brave students (this is the first time my high school has offered online summer classes). The purpose behind developing the class? To offer summer courses that were accelerated in order to challenge our "high-achieving" students.
Of those 12 "high-achieving" students, I have 4 left. There are two weeks left in the class.
Where did those 8 students go? They dropped. Too much work, they said. They rankled against doing blog posts where I asked them to be creative and make up stories about plate tectonics; they bristled at my online quizzes (written to demonstrate higher-order thinking) where, as one of them put it, "How am I supposed to answer questions I can't look up the answers to?" They expressed grave concerns about the state of their GPAs.
But what appalled me the most were these comments made by a parent of a student that dropped this week:
"I understand that the class began with 12 enrolled and there are now 5. This does not bode well of a class of 'honors students' that I know. What specifically would <the student> need to do to get an A in the class? This is the only grade that <the student> will accept to continue with the class."
This parent also stated that the student was not "accustomed" to redoing work (I allow students to redo all blog posts for reassessment).
All I could think of was what Alfie Kohn said in his article, "The Costs of Overemphasizing Achievement:"
"Specifically, research indicates that the use of traditional letter or number grades is reliably associated with three consequences. First, students tend to lose interest in whatever they’re learning. As motivation to get good grades goes up, motivation to explore ideas tends to go down. Second, students try to avoid challenging tasks whenever possible. More difficult assignments, after all, would be seen as an impediment to getting a top grade. Finally, the quality of students’ thinking is less impressive. One study after another shows that creativity and even long-term recall of facts are adversely affected by the use of traditional grades."
I used to scoff at Alfie Kohn, his ideas, and his rhetoric. But, after my experiences with "high-achieving" students this year, I am a fervent convert. Every characteristic that Alfie Kohn described above I have experienced in these four short weeks of summer school.
Amen, Alfie. Amen.
So here are some questions I have:
1) What's really meant by the term "honors student?" What do "honors" programs really teach students to do?
2) How do we transform these "honors students'" fixed mindsets into growth mindsets?
3) How do we restore the creativity in these "honors students" that has been subdued and neglected since grade school as a result of a factory-model system of education?
4) How long will turning them back into learners (i.e., deprogramming) take, and can it be done after they enter high school?
But the biggest question I have is this:
How can we redesign schools so we prevent turning students into "honors students" in the first place?