Israa Malhouni also contributed to this article.
Do you tend to worry about your grades? Are you unsure if there are fair systems in place for grades so that all students benefit? It is not just students who have opinions on the grading system; teachers have them too.
Mental Health and Grading
Many teachers have expressed how they believe that students worry about their grades too often, resulting in academic distress. “It was very rare when I was a student to have so many of my classmates hyper-focused on their grades. You would have maybe a handful of kids that were. I feel like I have whole classes of students who are really freaked out about their grades, and I’ve noticed that there’s not enough mental health support for students,” explained English teacher Anne Mooney.
Mooney expressed how she believes that receiving a 100 should not be “the goal” and is an unrealistic expectation. “It is rare that you’ll get 100…There’s always room to grow. I think sometimes, students get really caught up on things…It’s okay to be a B student. I think this is very much a problem of the education system: we have taught you that you need to have As, a 4.0 GPA, and you need to be perfect, because if you’re not, you’re not going to get into college, and everything’s going to be awful.” But, she continued, Bs can be “great.”
“You’ve done everything. All the skills are there, but you end up with a 90. It can seem really disheartening, but in reality, the 90s are a stellar grade,” voiced Mooney.
AP Seminar and AP Literature teacher Jennifer Clapp mentioned how earning grades can be “time-consuming” and “hard” to maintain every quarter with a lot of student work, which causes stress on teachers as well.
While grades have an important impact in schools, students often become so caught up with their grades that it has a negative impact on their mental health. They believe that grades determine who they are as a person and their future, leaving significant amounts of stress on them.
“I worry about my grades a lot because they determine so many things in the future. They are my main focus and I try my best to keep them up,” indicated freshman Aya Bihi.
She believed that even though she provides “a lot of effort” in her work, it is not always considered “sufficient.”
Junior Abigail Glaude claimed, “The grading system can be stressful because it makes me feel like my worth is tied to a number. The current system often places a significant amount of stress on students, affecting their mental health and overall motivation. This critical issue needs immediate attention to ensure a healthy learning environment.”
While Glaude believes the grading system “determines her future,” she also believes that they do not determine who she is as a student or person. “Grades reflect some aspects of who I am, such as my work ethic and dedication to my studies,” expressed Glaude. “However, they don’t show anything about my character or the complete picture of myself. Good grades can help me get into a good college, but I still need to define myself fully. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and there’s always room for growth and improvement.”
Glaude also mentioned how presenting in front of classes and class discussions can be “extremely difficult for students who struggle with anxiety” and pressures students when left with no other option, affecting their performance and causing their grades to drop significantly.”
Sophomore Jana Wanas proclaimed that the grading system “affects” her mental health and that she is “constantly worried” when she receives a bad grade on a test since “it’s worth so much.” s a result, she could potentially “fail the class.”
While students often believe that grades “determine” who they are as students, teachers believe the opposite. Math Math 1 CP/H and Math 3 Honors teacher Lewei Ding believed that students’ grades reflect how much they “get out of the material being taught” rather than the actual grade they earned or received.
Teachers’ Support for Students
Teachers provide extra help to support students throughout the year to help them succeed. “Those students who have kind of had a hard time in my classes…[I try to] give those students more individualized attention, check in with them, more suggestions that they can come after school before tests to ask extra questions or get some extra help…I do try to make myself more available. I can be here after school every day to try to help a student who’s struggling on tests to study and prepare for the next test,” clarified math teacher Joshua Sellers.
While it is hard to maintain good grades, several students always find ways to improve them. “When I receive a bad grade,” said Wanas, “I usually try to stay after school to correct things, ask my teacher questions on the work and during class, and study more in order to improve my low grade.”.
Freshman Vicky Ye explained that if she receives a low grade, she “immediately asks for revisions or remakes”—and if teachers give her enough of that support, she will accomplish it to improve her low grade.
Math 2 Honors teacher Genoveva Mateeva stated that she “provides test corrections and is available before and after school and during Enrichment” to help students improve low-grade scores and ask questions if necessary.
“I think test corrections are great because they provide an incentive to go back and learn what you missed when you took the test… So even if you didn’t get it when you first took the test, I still want you to understand it. So the test corrections provide the opportunity for students to go back and relearn the materials, and then get some of the points back on their tests,” claimed Joshua Kolodny, a Math 1 College Prep and Honors teacher. This policy is also intended to prepare students for college-level work where their grades may be mostly—or even exclusively—on tests.
As for Ding, she illustrated how she “provides extra credit Delta math questions” for her students to practice in addition to what she is teaching in class.
Assisting Students in Understanding their Grades
While Clapp and Mooney both provide writing and work revisions, they also provide feedback and rubrics on their students’ work in order for them to understand what grade they are receiving and the expectations needed to receive the grade they are pleased with. “Any assignment that I’m giving you a numeric assessment on has a rubric that clearly lays out what the expectations are for each performance standard so that the student can hopefully evaluate their own work,” Clapp explained.
Clapp highlighted that numeric grades without rubrics or samples are “meaningless,” as students do not know what their expectations are and how to achieve them. This is why she also provides “ models, which are “excellent for work. So [that you can see]what to aspire to, and you look at the difference between what you were aspiring for and what you actually did and try to see where you are.”
Hopes for the Future of Grading
Most students hope for math test percentages to be brought down significantly to improve their stress and academic performance.
Bihi, junior Shahd Abulghani, and freshman Sabrima Bhattarai believed that “it is not fair for math tests to be worth 60-65% of students’ grades” as this results in much more significantly lower grades and stress for students with anxieties and high expectations for themselves. Bihi said that, even when students can understand the material being taught, they may still get a couple of questions wrong on a test. This can lead to the incorrect assumption that it is as if “they never even tried.”
Bhattari hopes that tests and quizzes could “weigh lower.” Although she expressed agreement with the idea that tests should get the most points, it is still not good because “students are not able to recover from one bad test.” This demotivates them in putting greater effort into their assignments.
Bihi also shared her hopes that the percentages of future tests will not “affect student’s grades as much” and instead wishes that their “class participation was counted more.”
Echoing Bihi’s sentiment, Mateeva desired a decrease in the “percentage for Mathia practice and test corrections” moving forward. Even though Mateeva thinks they are a good idea for students, she still has some critiques. “Students should be able to see the mistakes and write the correct solutions. Sometimes it’s difficult to do so, so going over these mistakes in class and then providing examples similar to the problems for students would be better,” continued Mateeva.
Thoughts and Opinions on the Grading System Overall
Sellers suggested how “projects or group problem-solving activities” play a big role in the ways that teachers can accurately measure what students have learned, as there are different ways of taking an assessment. However, he illustrated how those kinds of assessments are “harder to grade, take more time, and take more planning” than regular tests.
Mateeva stated that “adding 20% for practice that students do in class and for homework” is “too much” and that it would be better if it could be changed to “10% for Mathia and 15% for practice and adding the 10% to assessments.” However, she thought that the overall grading policy is fair for everyone, and that “there are no perfect grading policies.” If there are, “there will always be weaknesses and strengths.”
History teacher Paul Doucette explained his thoughts, saying that the grading system that teachers use, such as X2 Aspen, is “extremely efficient” for all teachers, students, and parents to see how percentages are weighted, how grades are calculated, and see when things are missing or when to improve a grade.”
Abulghani voiced that she understands that in the last two years of high school, “teachers can be a little harsher grading-wise because they are preparing us for college,” but they are still teenagers ages 16 to 18 who are “super busy with a lot of different things.” Sometimes, they “just want full credit for something we turned in a day late.”
Glaude mentioned how “teachers who often assign several assignments and projects that are due simultaneously” should be more considerate of students’ other classes and lives.
Adding on, Wanas explained that “grades heavily impact students’ high school career and can cause mental health issues if they didn’t achieve what they typically wanted to achieve, causing them to feel as if they are not smart enough for the grades they receive. This results in students worrying so much about their grades, causing their high school journey to become extremely draining.”
Even though grades are mostly every student’s main focus, it is hard to always be able and maintain desirable grades. Senior Nashlyn Rubert stated that when she does extracurriculars and extra credit assignments to maintain her grades, it ends up “taking a toll on me because I ended up losing time with family and friends.”
Bihi explained that “students receive 100s on assignments, but their grades only increase by one point,” which is unfair considering the effort they put into their work for such a minimal impact.
The current grading system has its challenges, particularly in how it affects student’s mental health. Teachers have an important role in guiding students through their academic and high school journey by providing emotional and overall support.
Moving forward, there is hope for a grading system that prioritizes understanding and growth. By creating an academic environment where students feel supported, Malden High can help them build a healthier relationship with their education and encourage them to thrive both academically and personally.
