I Reward Grades but Should I Reward Learning

When you are on a high school sports team, your grades are always part of the team conversation. Under the guise of "academic eligibility" coaches and peers lean into each other in order to ensure that everyone is on the right track. There are also recognitions for athletes who are also superior students. While, personally I wasn't too invested, seeing as my academic goals were to insure that I got the discount for my car insurance, others started to notice that one of the highest grade point averages on the team was from a guy who took below level academics. We were a large high school and he said, "hey, grade point counts, and a college is going to see biology and physics on the transcript. As long as I have a decent ACT and those words are there, I'm set." The reality was he was right. He didn't work hard, got his 4.0, and went to the college of his choice. He was rewarded while still taking in our eyes the easy route.

As we are moving to differentiated growth-based learning, a parent converses with one of our second grade teachers about why his/her child is getting so many more wrong on assignments. The teacher shares with the parent, that the child is no longer doing "second grade work" but actually skills from the "fourth grade level." As such, instead of the child knowing the concepts before the lesson began, the child is learning in class, growing, making mistakes, and working over the mountain to understand. 

The reality is we are changing from age-based learning environments to growth-based learning environments. In an age-based learning environment we can rank the children as they enter the system, and pretty closely identify their rank for when they leave the system. Moreover, we could probably rank them by mother's level of education and socio-economic status and pretty closely identify their rank for when they leave the system. In a growth-based learning environment, we take off the ceiling. Even the high children have places to go. Everyone has a chance to move forward, everyone has challenges, and everyone has to find it within themselves to succeed. Growth at the individual level meritocracy. It is also a roller coaster.

In order to report growth, we also need to take the ceiling off of our system. We need to show how far any child can achieve and what the next steps can be for any child. Grade level standards are not enough. So many of our children are well above and well below "grade level" that it isn't meaningful to compare. Yes we can pay for grades. We can pay for grade level standards. Are we ready to pay for children to appropriately struggle and achieve? The following picture of six children receiving the same grade has been floating around the internet:

The question is which child learned? Is it the fourth child who struggled on units 1 and 2 and achieved on units 3-5? Is a grade of C appropriate for that child? Is it the sixth child that missed almost nothing but received a zero on Unit 5? Is a grade of C appropriate for that child? How about child two who decreased evenly on every unit? The reality is that these grades tell us nothing. If we reward grades what exactly are we rewarding? We, parents, students, and educators need to learn to reward learning. We may think that we understand what grades mean, but do we? We may worry that children don't know what it means and can't find rewards without grades. However, just like in video games and sports, students are able to handle challenges, work hard, and find meaning when they "level up!" Can we level up our system to support their learning?

The Last Starfighter