On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus speaks with Ethan Hutt and Jack Schneider about their new book, Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings, and Rankings Undermine Learning (but Don’t Have To). Nat, Ethan, and Jack discuss grades, tests, and transcripts; whether grades do a good job of motivating student learning; how our current grading system came into existence; grading abroad; short-haul and long-haul messages; AP exams; the difficulty of narrative grading; whether transcripts should be updated for the digital age; making grades overwritable; the GED; how teachers can improve their grading practices; and more.

Ethan Hutt is Associate Professor of Education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Jack Schneider is the Dwight W. Allen Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Show Notes:

Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings, and Rankings Undermine Learning (but Don’t Have To)

The big problem(s) with grades

Making the grade: a history of the A–F marking scheme

A History of Achievement Testing in the United States, Or: Explaining the Persistence of Inadequacy

A Thin Line Between Love and Hate: Educational Assessment in the United States