Teachers Should Grade Work Less

I always fought against management demands for grades on most pieces of work. Apart from it being an onerous task, I could never convince myself that grading an individual task was valid — we had exam board grade descriptors, but they were holistic, judging a breadth of abilities across the whole course. If I set homework that most could complete successfully, how is that gradable? I switched early on to recording 'completion' grades, so I had evidence about task difficulty and student motivation. Class tests got a simple score. Grading happened with summative exams, usually.

How did the students respond? Initially badly, especially the more exam focussed ones. They had bought into the idea that a constant exam focus improved results. Of course, you don't fatten a pig by weighing it, and constantly comparing students against exam standards distracts them from deeper learning.

Eventually they mostly came to value a focus on the content instead of assessment. And hopefully that went with them into future education too.

[Initially posted on mastodon in response to a question, 2024 Nov 11]

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