Should high schools move away from letter grades?

The film “The Most Likely to Succeed” prompted many questions about project-based learning. The school High Tech High challenges the traditional curriculum, class structure, and grading system, with the goal of preparing students for the future, instead of focusing on getting them to the next step.

Re-imagining education is not a simple concept. Our current system is standardized through testing, curriculums, and letter grades, something that could pose problems when it comes to the students’ retention of information. In my experience, I will study for a test mainly in the week leading up to it, and then cram on the important facts the day before, ensuring that the concepts are fresh in my brain for the time of the test. Sometimes, I’ll even be looking at my notes in class before the test starts in a desperate attempt to remember all that I can. While this strategy was for the most part successful, and resulted in good test grades, those grades are all that I have to show for it. For example, I know that I used to be able to do complex chemistry questions, but there is no way that I would still be able to do that today. For this reason, it would be very beneficial to move away from rigid grading systems, though it’s easier said than done.

Teachers face resistance from parents and students when attempting to change the pedagogy. The education of students is a big responsibility for teachers. A small gap in learning can increase quite quickly and pose problems for students down the road, hence the anxiety from parents. That being said, there are so many opportunities for our education system to be improved.