I was recently thinking about grades, and was wondering what an
‘A’ means these days. Then, at my lad’s Back to School night, I
was confronted with evidence of the two competing theories that
I see. One teacher had a scale on the wall, with (I don’t
remember exactly, but something like): 96-100 = A+, 91-95 = A,
86-90 = A-, and so on, down to below 50 = Fail. Now, you get
full points on homework just for trying, but it’s clearly a
competency model, with absolute standards. A different teacher
recounted how she tells students that if they just do the
required work, that it’s only worth a C, and A’s are for above
and beyond. That’s a different model. There aren’t strict
criteria for that latter. And I’m very sympathetic to that
latter stance, despite that it seems subjective. The second
approach resonates with my experience back in high school, where
A’s were handed out for work that really was above and beyond
the ordinary. A deeper understanding. We seem to have shifted to
a model where if you do what’s asked,