This episode originally aired on Feb. 1, 2024.
Anyone who has ever crammed for a test, worried about a report card or been on the receiving end of someone begging for a better grade knows that how we assess students in America has some unintended consequences.
The authors of a new book argue that grades aren’t a good measure of what a student knows, and may be more stigmatizing than motivating, especially for lower-performing students.
Jack Schneider and Ethan Hutt join us to discuss their new book Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings and Rankings Undermine Learning (But Don’t Have To).
Guests:
- Jack Schneider, Professor of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst
- Ethan Hutt, Associate Professor at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
- Michael Petrilli, President, The Thomas B. Fordham Institute
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