FIAE Chapter 8

Most teachers do not like grading, they see it as unnecessary and time consuming. Grading has to be diplomatic and tedious. The six main purposes of grades are to document student and teacher progress, to provide feedback to the student and family, and the teacher, to inform instructional decisions, to motivate students, to punish students, and to sort students. The last three reasons are not useful, usually when a student receives a bad grade they are not motivated, they end up shutting down. One of the most difficult issues to grapple with when grading is how to make sure that the grades do not cause students to turn away from the subject being taught, yet not all students can receive high grades because that is an inauthentic measure of learning.