By: Gianna Guerrera ’28
Nowadays, classrooms feel more like a competition than a place to learn and develop. I compete to get the highest score so I can place in the “top 10” in my class. I feel like I’m under constant pressure to get the “best grade possible” on my essays, or feel obligated to stay up until midnight every night, completing graded assignments that do nothing but stress me out. But why? To have a higher GPA than my peers? I hear others asking, “What did you get on this?” but I never hear, “What did you learn?” We spend so much time memorizing vocabulary just to pass the test, only to forget it within minutes of walking out of the testing room.
The truth is that grades take the fun out of learning; this is why KO should replace grades with a feedback-based system in which students get comments from their teachers instead of letter grades for each assignment or essay. At the end of each semester, students would be evaluated through a portfolio that highlights their growth and understanding of all that they learned. This will help KO support meaningful learning and reduce stress, while allowing students to demonstrate everything they learned from the semester.
Grades have been a leading factor for stress and anxiety in students, which only harms their motivation to learn. Grading systems typically negatively affect students’ mental well-being. Everyone knows that school can be hard, especially when students are balancing work in around six to eight classes, so when students are labeled as “failing” or not doing so well, it can really take a toll on their motivation and self-esteem. As students’ grades start to drop, their confidence drops with it, only leading to greater apathy.
A survey in 2017 from the Worcester Polytechnic Institute reported that 82% of students said there is too much academic pressure at school. This high percentage of college students who struggle with an academic burden also experience additional problems caused by grades, such as stress, lack of sleep, and an overall decline in mental health. According to a 2019 report from the Pew Research Center, 70% of teens develop anxiety and 13% of teens have experienced depression because of academic stress at school . These statistics alone show how schools are making students feel negatively about themselves because of stress in the classroom.
The American Psychological Association stated that in 2024, 75% of high school students and 50% of middle schoolers often feel stressed because of schoolwork. This shows that a large number of middle school and high school students get overwhelmed because of school work. And while stress is common in teenagers, they don’t have the resources or skills to manage their stress effectively.
These negative feelings that arise in the classroom only make students feel less willing to learn, which really contradicts the purpose of going to school. In the eyes of a student, how good their grades are defines how successful they are. But there are so many other factors that play a role in how students achieve their goals in the classroom.
Grades can distract from the real purpose of learning by making students focus more on numbers and percentages rather than understanding material. Many students only care about getting a high grade which takes away from student’s development and curiosity. Sophomore Olivia Adamowicz has a passion for science but struggles to keep up with the information that gets discussed in class. “It feels like we have a test almost every week,.” she started. “It’s so hard to keep up with memorizing vocab and concepts, just to forget it, and then relearn it for the final.”
One alternative to traditional grading systems can be seen in New York City at a school called Saint Ann’s School, which is quite similar to KO because they have both a middle school and a high school; however, unlike our school, they don’t use a regular grade system. Instead, they use a feedback system that pushes students to focus more on improvement rather than perfection. This way, students can become more motivated and confident in their learning. Teachers respond individually to students’ work helping them improve with structured and personalized feedback. This helps teachers understand students strengths and weaknesses which can ultimately help them grow in the classroom.
At Saint Ann’s School, they believe that grades are often reductive symbols that don’t fully represent the effort or creativity of students. As a student who has spent countless hours working on projects only to receive a grade that I was unhappy with, is nothing short of frustrating.
A middle school science teacher in Washington, Rachel Kettner-Thompson, has shifted her classroom to become gradeless, and has seen nothing but beneficial outcomes from it. She noticed a stronger sense of intrinsic motivation in her students, and a greater willingness to take risks and ask for feedback. “Students are less likely to give up because they know they can continue to develop mastery,” she noted .
A portfolio-based learning system would be the most effective form of assessment at KO because it would create a less stressful environment. It will evaluate how much the students have learned over the semester, instead of on one test or assignment. There will still be quizzes and assignments for students to do during the year, but instead of getting graded for them, teachers will give feedback and meet with students to talk about what they did well, and what they still need to work on. At the end of the semester, when midterms and finals usually take place, students will make a portfolio presentation that captures all of the topics that were covered in the semester. The outcome would be students feeling more confident in their work and feeling more ownership over all that they have accomplished. Students would get feedback on their portfolio, and they will be able to use that going into the next school year. Creating portfolios makes students more self-reflective and forces them to assess how much they’ve learned and areas where they can grow.
In the end, schools are supposed to inspire students to grow and develop a love of learning, but traditional grading systems seem to do the opposite. Instead of encouraging curiosity and creativity, grades create pressure and stress that negatively affect students’ mental health as well as their motivation.
By replacing grades with feedback and semester portfolios, KO could create a more supportive learning environment where students would be valued for their growth and efforts instead of a letters and numbers on a report card.
