At Harbord Collegiate Institute, some teachers have started using a grading system for assignments only using levels from 1-4 to try to help the students improve their grades. What do the students and teachers think of this system?

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According to Duke University's Learning Innovation website, this system, called “ungrading,” is “a practice that eliminates or greatly minimizes the use of assigned points or letter grades in a course, focusing instead on providing frequent and detailed feedback to students.” They also state that the system is used to focus on growth and reflection within the students as well as more communication between students and teachers. The system was also built to help students reach academic goals with more ease.

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When Grade 9 and 10 students at Harbord were asked if they liked this system, 50% said they did. The majority of students in grade 9 said they disliked it compared to the Grade 10s who mostly liked the system.

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“It takes away the stress of an actual mark,” said Marina Scherman in Grade 10. “It lets you focus on feedback to get better.” Opposed to Marina, Lidia Papadimitriou in Grade 10 said, “I find it stressful when I don't get my exact grade. In my opinion, I enjoy knowing my exact number so I know what I can fix and what to expect on my report card.”

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Another Grade 10 student, Madison Cheung, was more neutral about it and said the non-grading system had “bigger ranges in smaller categories,” and “it’s less stressful,” although with the other system she would “push herself to improve more.”

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When teachers in the English department at Harbord were asked why they used this system, the majority said it was to engage the students more and assess their work as well as to cause less stress. 

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Ms. Williams, an English and GLE teacher said, “Using ungrading grading methods allows for more conversations to happen between students and teachers rather than a computer spitting out a number as a mark. If students are given feedback and levels for assessments, it will lessen the fixation on achieving a particular numerical mark and increase student engagement in learning.”

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When Harbord students were asked why they thought their teachers used this system, most said it’s so the students wouldn’t worry about numbers. 

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Reiko Smith in Grade 10 said, “[It’s] so students don't fixate on numbers. It's easier for the teachers to mark, because it's a lot of stress to just put one number to represent how well someone did.” Lillian Nguyen in Grade 9 said, “There isn't as much stress about knowing your exact mark and obsessing over how high or low it is. It gives an estimate of around what mark you received and is there to reduce stress in marks."

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When Harbord students were asked if they thought this system helped their grades, 64.3% of respondents said they thought it didn’t. 

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Reiko Smith in Grade 10 said, “I find my grades on the report cards aren't as high in classes that use the un-grading grading system.” 

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“It relieves stress and allows a more accurate mark with input from the teacher and student,” said Nico Cassar in grade 10.

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In conclusion, half of students polled like the system because they don’t focus on a number, and the other half don't like it because it’s too wide of a range for each level. The teachers that use this system use it to engage the students more in the process of learning and to not focus on just the end results. The students, on the other hand, think teachers use it so that the students don’t focus on and only acknowledge the numbers. The majority of students don’t think it helps compared to the teachers who think it does.