0:00:09.476,0:00:12.395
So when I was 15 years old,

0:00:12.395,0:00:15.231
I felt my first real life calling.

0:00:16.011,0:00:17.900
Thanks to a group of Olympic athletes

0:00:17.900,0:00:22.210
who were coaching kids for free [br]right here in San Jose,

0:00:22.219,0:00:23.884
I fell in love

0:00:23.884,0:00:27.707
with one of the most obscure[br]sports in the world:

0:00:27.707,0:00:29.249
the hammer throw.

0:00:29.249,0:00:32.938
Now, I imagine you're all familiar[br]with the shot put, the discus,

0:00:32.938,0:00:34.874
maybe even the javelin.

0:00:34.874,0:00:37.471
So here's the moment [br]you've all been waiting for:

0:00:37.471,0:00:39.631
Hammer Throwing 101.

0:00:39.631,0:00:42.048
Imagine you took a 16-pound bowling ball,

0:00:42.048,0:00:44.751
and you lodged a broomstick into it,

0:00:44.751,0:00:48.941
and then you spun it around so fast [br]that the ball went 60 mph,

0:00:48.941,0:00:51.685
and it built up centrifugal force

0:00:51.685,0:00:54.251
up to 500 lbs.

0:00:54.251,0:00:56.864
And then you let go [br]at just the right moment

0:00:56.864,0:01:00.419
so that it could fly higher [br]than an eight-story building

0:01:00.419,0:01:02.931
and nearly the length of a football field.

0:01:02.931,0:01:04.912
And that gives you some sense

0:01:04.912,0:01:08.432
of the unique difficulty [br]and appeal of hammer throwing.

0:01:08.432,0:01:11.195
But despite having the best [br]teachers in the world,

0:01:11.195,0:01:14.017
the first day did not go well.

0:01:14.017,0:01:16.743
In fact, I fell down.

0:01:16.743,0:01:18.617
Couldn't have done worse.

0:01:19.467,0:01:22.758
But I got back up,

0:01:22.758,0:01:24.000
took thousands of throws,

0:01:24.000,0:01:26.360
and got better over time.

0:01:26.360,0:01:28.378
So while I started at zero,

0:01:28.378,0:01:30.148
by the time I was a senior,

0:01:30.148,0:01:34.021
I had the farthest throw[br]for a high school student in the country;

0:01:34.021,0:01:36.031
earned a scholarship to Georgetown -

0:01:36.031,0:01:37.496
go, Hoyas! -

0:01:37.496,0:01:39.749
in 1996, I made my first Olympic team;

0:01:39.749,0:01:42.218
and eventually I threw 260 feet,

0:01:42.218,0:01:45.633
which is one of the farthest throws[br]in American history.

0:01:45.633,0:01:47.983
(Applause)

0:01:52.559,0:01:53.721
Thank you.

0:01:53.721,0:01:55.855
But to be honest with you,

0:01:55.855,0:01:59.585
the real benefits of that activity ...

0:02:00.835,0:02:03.246
were that it paid for my education,

0:02:03.246,0:02:05.249
it allowed me to see the world,

0:02:05.249,0:02:08.071
and it allowed me[br]to form lifelong relationships

0:02:08.071,0:02:10.415
with some very amazing people.

0:02:10.415,0:02:13.696
But as an educator these last 20 years,

0:02:13.696,0:02:15.258
I often wonder

0:02:15.258,0:02:18.164
what would have happened [br]to my Olympic dream

0:02:18.164,0:02:20.664
if I had been graded

0:02:20.664,0:02:24.004
in the same way that we grade [br]kids in the classroom.

0:02:24.004,0:02:27.256
Quick history of letter grading [br]in the United States.

0:02:27.256,0:02:30.452
Letter grading actually started in 1897

0:02:30.452,0:02:32.348
out in Mount Holyoke College,

0:02:32.348,0:02:36.678
where they decided to grade [br]their students' work from A through E.

0:02:36.678,0:02:37.682
Now, one year later,

0:02:37.682,0:02:42.272
they realized that E[br]was being confused with excellent.

0:02:42.272,0:02:43.267
(Laughter)

0:02:43.267,0:02:46.459
And that's where we get the F [br]that we all know and dread.

0:02:46.459,0:02:47.999
(Laughter)

0:02:47.999,0:02:53.509
So we're talking about [br]a 120-year-old way of assessing students.

0:02:53.509,0:02:55.001
Now, assessment is great.

0:02:55.001,0:02:59.771
I spent probably more time [br]watching video of hammer throwing

0:02:59.771,0:03:01.732
than I did actually throwing.

0:03:01.732,0:03:05.238
But letter grades present [br]a number of serious problems.

0:03:05.238,0:03:06.448
Number one:

0:03:06.448,0:03:08.917
Letter grades are unreasonably permanent.

0:03:08.917,0:03:10.975
So let's go back to my Olympic story.

0:03:10.975,0:03:13.004
On day one, I would have gotten an F.

0:03:13.994,0:03:16.431
By the end of the semester, probably a D.

0:03:16.431,0:03:20.006
Now, as a senior, [br]I was leading the country;

0:03:20.006,0:03:21.636
I'll take the A.

0:03:22.477,0:03:25.990
But all of this is going to be averaged.

0:03:25.990,0:03:29.945
And so I probably got [br]about a 2.5 GPA in hammer throwing.

0:03:29.945,0:03:34.109
And with a 2.5, colleges would say [br]I'm not ready for the next level,

0:03:34.109,0:03:37.769
and my Olympic dream would be over[br]almost before it began.

0:03:37.769,0:03:41.529
Now, you might be thinking, "OK. Well, [br]that's sports. Different from academia."

0:03:42.489,0:03:45.988
Well, let's check in with your typical [br]high school freshman.

0:03:45.988,0:03:47.972
Let's call him Doug.

0:03:47.972,0:03:49.260
So Doug,

0:03:49.260,0:03:53.660
for whatever completely rational reason,

0:03:53.660,0:03:57.486
he bombs his first biology test[br]his freshman year.

0:03:57.486,0:03:59.489
Maybe he has the flu.

0:03:59.489,0:04:01.761
Maybe something's going on at home.

0:04:01.761,0:04:03.747
But he starts off with an F.

0:04:03.747,0:04:05.758
He gets better over time.

0:04:05.758,0:04:10.606
By the end of the semester, Doug is [br]the best biology student in the class.

0:04:10.606,0:04:13.763
But it's all going to be averaged,

0:04:13.763,0:04:15.989
so Doug gets a C+,

0:04:15.989,0:04:19.248
and that C+, it's forever.

0:04:19.248,0:04:20.683
So Doug as a senior

0:04:20.683,0:04:22.753
could go on to do research

0:04:22.753,0:04:26.723
worthy of a Nobel Prize in Biology

0:04:26.723,0:04:28.486
but cannot get a 4.0.

0:04:28.486,0:04:30.760
And I want you to think[br]about Doug's situation.

0:04:30.760,0:04:33.257
How many of us, if we were in a footrace,

0:04:33.257,0:04:34.936
if you fell down at the start,

0:04:34.936,0:04:38.739
and you knew you had no chance [br]of winning or even placing well,

0:04:38.739,0:04:41.995
would get back and run all out?

0:04:41.995,0:04:44.137
That's really hard to do.

0:04:44.137,0:04:46.438
Or consider the role reversal.

0:04:46.438,0:04:49.980
I know hundreds of teachers,[br]and I don't think there's any one of them

0:04:49.980,0:04:53.575
who would want a grade [br]on their first year of teaching

0:04:53.575,0:04:56.748
that stuck to them[br]for the entirety of their career.

0:04:56.748,0:04:58.244
I know I wouldn't.

0:04:58.244,0:05:00.781
What we're missing out on is the do-over.

0:05:00.781,0:05:02.694
Everything that we do in life -

0:05:02.694,0:05:05.038
you know, our basic life skills -

0:05:05.038,0:05:07.030
we're terrible at them at the beginning.

0:05:07.030,0:05:09.733
From walking to talking to riding a bike,

0:05:09.733,0:05:12.502
we all get better[br]by a process of do-overs.

0:05:12.502,0:05:14.430
Or take design.

0:05:14.430,0:05:16.469
This is a Ted event after all.

0:05:16.469,0:05:18.847
The logo that everybody knows

0:05:18.847,0:05:21.918
because of the cool arrow [br]in the negative space,

0:05:21.918,0:05:23.691
the FedEx logo there,

0:05:23.691,0:05:27.770
famously went through 200 iterations[br]before they got to this version.

0:05:27.770,0:05:31.890
This was not 199 failures [br]and then a sudden success;

0:05:31.890,0:05:33.751
it was an evolution.

0:05:33.751,0:05:37.143
Or consider the paragons [br]of success that we admire:

0:05:37.143,0:05:38.143
Thomas Edison,

0:05:38.143,0:05:42.185
famously finding out 1000 ways [br]to not make a light bulb

0:05:42.185,0:05:43.806
before the light went on;

0:05:43.806,0:05:45.725
or Walt Disney,

0:05:45.725,0:05:48.293
whose first animation company[br]went bankrupt;

0:05:48.293,0:05:49.876
or Maya Angelou,

0:05:49.876,0:05:53.517
who endured one of the most difficult [br]childhoods you could possibly imagine

0:05:53.517,0:05:58.057
to come back and become one of the most [br]influential voices of the 20th century.

0:05:59.443,0:06:01.329
What do these people have in common?

0:06:02.219,0:06:04.305
It's not education.

0:06:04.305,0:06:05.540
It's not money.

0:06:05.540,0:06:08.484
It's not privilege. It's not talent.

0:06:08.484,0:06:09.554
It's resilience.

0:06:09.554,0:06:13.732
And when we don't allow for a do-over,[br]we don't build that trait

0:06:13.732,0:06:18.702
that is most in common for people [br]who have achieved great success.

0:06:20.351,0:06:21.831
Grades are stressful by nature.

0:06:21.831,0:06:24.541
If we talk about student stress,[br]we should listen to them

0:06:24.541,0:06:27.427
because what they tell us[br]is absolutely shocking.

0:06:27.427,0:06:28.857
In 2015,

0:06:28.857,0:06:31.221
the California Healthy Kids Survey

0:06:31.221,0:06:35.971
revealed that one out of three students[br]reported chronic sadness ...

0:06:36.895,0:06:38.095
depression.

0:06:38.985,0:06:41.156
And the year before,

0:06:41.156,0:06:43.728
the American Psychological Association

0:06:43.728,0:06:46.940
asked students: "What is[br]the leading cause of stress in your life?"

0:06:46.940,0:06:50.689
and identified school as number one.

0:06:50.689,0:06:55.229
And one in four said [br]it was causing them extreme stress.

0:06:55.229,0:06:58.852
And it's not just grade permanence[br]that causes this.

0:06:58.852,0:07:01.442
There's something inherent [br]about grades themselves.

0:07:02.032,0:07:04.991
I want you to imagine [br]the world's worst video game.

0:07:04.991,0:07:06.743
We're going to call it Level Down.

0:07:06.743,0:07:10.375
And in Level Down, you start off [br]with everything unlocked.

0:07:10.375,0:07:13.873
You've got all the super powers.[br]You've got all the gear.

0:07:13.873,0:07:16.992
But you only get worse over time.

0:07:16.992,0:07:19.735
Two things would happen[br]if you played Level Down:

0:07:19.735,0:07:21.716
you would lose interest very quickly,

0:07:21.716,0:07:25.064
and you would also focus[br]only on the things that could go wrong.

0:07:25.064,0:07:27.076
There's nothing to strive for.

0:07:27.076,0:07:30.973
And this is very much the situation[br]of high school students.

0:07:30.973,0:07:36.723
Even if our man Doug gets an A[br]on that first biology test,

0:07:36.723,0:07:40.477
he can only hold on or do worse.

0:07:40.477,0:07:43.087
And so he's basically[br]doing a tightrope walk,

0:07:43.087,0:07:46.934
and if he gets to the other end[br]of the semester with the A,

0:07:46.934,0:07:50.324
the chief emotion[br]he might experience is relief.

0:07:51.735,0:07:55.211
The chief emotion of learning and[br]bettering yourself should not be relief;

0:07:55.211,0:07:56.216
it should be joy.

0:07:56.216,0:07:57.216
Now, you might say,

0:07:57.216,0:07:59.926
"Well, OK, education: [br]serious stuff, it's not a game."

0:07:59.926,0:08:01.180
And I would beg to differ.

0:08:01.180,0:08:02.880
It's already a game.

0:08:02.880,0:08:07.640
It's just a really stressful[br]and oftentimes boring game.

0:08:07.640,0:08:09.938
And all the students[br]know the rules to this game.

0:08:09.938,0:08:11.461
Rule number one:

0:08:11.461,0:08:14.461
Find out what the teacher[br]really wants me to know.

0:08:14.461,0:08:15.500
Number two:

0:08:15.500,0:08:20.350
Cram the night before or during lunch[br]or in the car or during break.

0:08:20.350,0:08:21.507
Number three:

0:08:21.507,0:08:24.470
Spit out that answer[br]that that teacher wanted to know.

0:08:24.470,0:08:26.400
And repeat.

0:08:26.400,0:08:28.158
This is not a fun game.

0:08:28.158,0:08:29.948
It's a very stressful game.

0:08:29.948,0:08:32.020
And we need to change the rules.

0:08:32.020,0:08:34.476
Grades are counter-motivational.

0:08:34.476,0:08:35.730
What I mean by that is

0:08:35.730,0:08:40.240
they literally motivate traits[br]that we don't want to foster.

0:08:40.240,0:08:42.757
All right. We've got three paths here.

0:08:42.757,0:08:44.970
The one on the left takes three hours.

0:08:44.970,0:08:46.974
The one in the middle takes one hour.

0:08:46.974,0:08:49.497
The one on the right takes five hours.

0:08:49.497,0:08:52.489
If there's $100 at the end of this path,

0:08:52.489,0:08:55.225
which road are you going to take?

0:08:55.225,0:08:57.753
Students are not dumb.

0:08:57.753,0:08:59.338
They'll do the same thing.

0:08:59.338,0:09:02.014
This means taking the easiest classes,

0:09:02.014,0:09:05.748
the easiest teachers, [br]the least complex projects,

0:09:05.748,0:09:07.891
because the pay-off's the same,

0:09:07.891,0:09:10.200
and as a result,

0:09:10.200,0:09:13.695
what are we actually encouraging?

0:09:13.695,0:09:15.625
A minimized work ethic.

0:09:16.653,0:09:17.898
A conformity of knowledge:

0:09:17.898,0:09:20.845
Don't question the teacher;[br]it's only going to hurt your grade.

0:09:20.845,0:09:22.615
And most painfully of all, for me,

0:09:22.615,0:09:24.239
an actual avoidance of creativity.

0:09:24.239,0:09:26.003
Why would you come up with a solution

0:09:26.003,0:09:29.953
that's different than the A work[br]that the teacher provided as a sample?

0:09:31.158,0:09:32.960
I would point out

0:09:32.960,0:09:35.190
that these are the traits

0:09:35.190,0:09:38.973
that we look to for innovators in society:

0:09:38.973,0:09:41.895
people who are incredibly hardworking,

0:09:41.895,0:09:43.969
people who think differently,

0:09:43.969,0:09:46.321
and people who are creative.

0:09:46.321,0:09:47.375
Now, some might say,

0:09:47.375,0:09:51.713
"Well, it's kids these days. [br]They're just lazy."

0:09:51.713,0:09:52.998
But they're not.

0:09:52.998,0:09:55.484
Our man Doug, he'll work incredibly hard,

0:09:55.484,0:09:57.156
just after school,

0:09:57.156,0:10:00.349
whether it's doing a sport[br]or leveling up in a video game

0:10:00.349,0:10:02.227
or figuring out a skateboard trick

0:10:02.227,0:10:04.867
or figuring out some new, you know, [br]song on the guitar.

0:10:04.867,0:10:06.762
They will spend hours on this,

0:10:06.762,0:10:08.494
on learning.

0:10:08.494,0:10:10.714
What are we depriving them of in school

0:10:10.714,0:10:12.974
that they're getting after school?

0:10:12.974,0:10:15.257
Daniel Pink

0:10:15.257,0:10:18.337
wrote a groundbreaking book called Drive,

0:10:18.337,0:10:20.967
where he described that [br]what we really are motivated by

0:10:20.967,0:10:24.272
are autonomy, mastery, and purpose.

0:10:24.272,0:10:27.953
Essentially, we want the freedom[br]to choose what we're doing.

0:10:27.953,0:10:30.833
We want to figure out[br]things that are hard.

0:10:31.966,0:10:33.682
And we want to know that it matters,

0:10:33.682,0:10:36.910
either to our future[br]or to the benefit of the world.

0:10:36.910,0:10:41.810
In short, students want the freedom[br]to develop skills that actually matter.

0:10:42.898,0:10:44.652
Four:

0:10:44.652,0:10:48.408
Grades distract from[br]the actual goal of learning.

0:10:48.408,0:10:50.528
All right. This is Ernie Sheldon.

0:10:51.265,0:10:56.495
Ernie wanted to break[br]the seven-foot high jump record.

0:10:56.495,0:10:58.424
This was a big deal in the 1950s.

0:10:58.424,0:10:59.570
No one had ever done it.

0:10:59.570,0:11:01.911
It was kind of like the four-minute mile.

0:11:01.911,0:11:03.493
So Ernie was so fired up

0:11:03.493,0:11:07.722
that in his bedroom,[br]he put a tape mark at seven feet.

0:11:07.722,0:11:09.389
Fixated on that number.

0:11:10.459,0:11:14.577
Ernie jumped 6'11" dozens of times

0:11:14.577,0:11:16.464
but never jumped seven feet,

0:11:16.464,0:11:18.865
because he was so focused[br]on the end result

0:11:18.865,0:11:22.992
and not on the process[br]on actually how to jump better

0:11:22.992,0:11:26.333
that would give him the end result.

0:11:26.333,0:11:29.258
So if we replace that tape with the grade,

0:11:29.258,0:11:31.064
you can see the problem.

0:11:31.064,0:11:33.161
And there's some research to back this up.

0:11:33.161,0:11:36.030
Ruth Butler took three groups of kids

0:11:36.030,0:11:39.414
and said we're going to do[br]two academic tasks,

0:11:39.414,0:11:41.699
and, group number one, [br]we're going to grade you.

0:11:41.699,0:11:44.994
Group number two, we're[br]just going to give you comments.

0:11:44.994,0:11:47.493
Group number three, [br]we're going to do both.

0:11:47.493,0:11:50.224
Guess which group outperformed all others

0:11:50.224,0:11:55.184
in both performance academically[br]and in their interest in the projects.

0:11:56.848,0:11:58.242
Group number two.

0:11:58.242,0:11:59.485
In other words,

0:11:59.485,0:12:02.425
just knowing they were being graded

0:12:02.425,0:12:04.785
actually made them perform worse.

0:12:05.395,0:12:08.763
So knowing all this, why are we doing it?

0:12:08.763,0:12:10.440
Who do these grades actually serve?

0:12:10.440,0:12:12.659
The only answer I can[br]come up with is colleges.

0:12:12.659,0:12:14.379
They need to differentiate students.

0:12:14.379,0:12:15.500
I get it.

0:12:15.500,0:12:20.272
But consider the fact that two teachers[br]in the same department of the same school

0:12:20.272,0:12:22.735
might disagree on assessment.

0:12:22.735,0:12:26.453
Or the fact that schools[br]use different grading scales.

0:12:26.453,0:12:31.345
At one school, the same student[br]gets a 4.4, another one a 3.8.

0:12:31.345,0:12:32.623
Same student.

0:12:33.785,0:12:36.908
Or the fact that the letter grades[br]don't mean anything anymore.

0:12:36.908,0:12:41.864
There was a time that a C[br]literally meant a mathematical average.

0:12:41.864,0:12:46.694
I don't know a class in existence[br]right now where that's the case.

0:12:46.694,0:12:49.024
So what do we do?

0:12:49.024,0:12:50.897
I give you some what-ifs.

0:12:50.897,0:12:54.984
What if more colleges subscribed to[br]Freshman forgiveness?

0:12:54.984,0:13:00.187
So our state schools and our UC system[br]and some private schools do this.

0:13:00.187,0:13:01.887
But it should be standard.

0:13:01.887,0:13:04.679
What if colleges[br]focused more on portfolios:

0:13:04.679,0:13:06.882
what students designed,

0:13:06.882,0:13:09.504
what stories they told,

0:13:09.504,0:13:12.238
what research they've done,

0:13:12.238,0:13:14.007
and what have they written?

0:13:14.007,0:13:19.487
You're going to get a much more clear[br]picture of who that person actually is.

0:13:20.216,0:13:23.726
All right. Who can figure out[br]what these three students have in common?

0:13:25.994,0:13:28.034
They have the same GPA.

0:13:28.900,0:13:30.510
And that's crazy.

0:13:31.467,0:13:37.027
I propose that if there was a calculation[br]of slope that followed the GPA ...

0:13:38.597,0:13:41.312
something that gave us[br]a little bit of story,

0:13:41.312,0:13:43.609
a movement index

0:13:43.609,0:13:44.741
so we could understand:

0:13:44.741,0:13:48.308
Hey, student number two is excelling

0:13:48.308,0:13:50.128
and probably really ready for college.

0:13:50.128,0:13:51.507
He just had a rough start.

0:13:51.507,0:13:54.470
We should know that story, [br]and it's not that hard.

0:13:54.910,0:13:56.700
What can educators do?

0:13:56.700,0:13:58.286
We can gamify our classes.

0:13:58.286,0:14:00.831
Students can level up[br]instead of level down.

0:14:00.831,0:14:02.549
We can give them a sense of mastery.

0:14:02.549,0:14:06.518
So a student who's in calculus[br]really has mastered algebra first.

0:14:06.518,0:14:07.925
We can flip our classrooms.

0:14:07.925,0:14:11.058
We can provide resources[br]that students can access at home

0:14:11.058,0:14:13.013
so they're not so stressed.

0:14:13.013,0:14:14.555
We can have do-overs

0:14:14.555,0:14:17.019
so students' work can improve over time.

0:14:17.019,0:14:20.701
And lastly, we can link learning.

0:14:20.701,0:14:22.649
This is when you work with a professional

0:14:22.649,0:14:26.357
who's using the skills you're learning[br]in class in their professional life,

0:14:26.357,0:14:28.244
which gives it purpose.

0:14:28.244,0:14:30.379
For the last five years,

0:14:30.379,0:14:32.188
I've tried all of these,

0:14:32.188,0:14:34.224
and I can tell you they work.

0:14:34.224,0:14:37.487
My students are less stressed,

0:14:37.487,0:14:39.321
more engaged,

0:14:39.321,0:14:41.511
and producing better work.

0:14:42.882,0:14:44.713
So make no mistake:

0:14:44.713,0:14:48.969
there are alternatives[br]to traditional letter grading,

0:14:48.969,0:14:54.229
and in a world that is changing[br]more quickly than ever before

0:14:54.229,0:14:57.670
and facing unprecedented challenges,

0:14:57.670,0:15:00.920
we're going to rely[br]on education more than ever.

0:15:00.920,0:15:02.972
And after 120 years,

0:15:02.972,0:15:04.818
I hope you'll agree:

0:15:04.818,0:15:06.470
we're ready for an upgrade.

0:15:06.470,0:15:07.514
Thank you.

0:15:07.514,0:15:08.534
(Applause)