De-grading education | Elizabeth Wissner-Gross | TEDxBeaconStreet

Elizabeth Wissner-Gross, author of best-selling books on education and Founder and President of Educational Strategies, shares her epiphany on why American schools lag far behind those of other countries. Hint: It's not the teachers' fault. It's not the students, parents, unions, tenure, too much homework, too little homework, or even too much testing. The problem, pure and simple, is grades and fear of grade inflation. The American grading system forces our teachers to "anti-teach." This TEDxBeaconStreet talk, excerpted from the author's upcoming book "Gotcha Grading," reveals how eliminating our grading system could bring American education back up to the top.

Author and educator Elizabeth Wissner-Gross, most known for her best-selling books on educational opportunities for high school students, is the Founder and President of Educational Strategies, a leading international consulting company that connects ambitious high school students worldwide with the top American college opportunities.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Like many Americans,

when I read that American
high school students

are lagging behind students
in 20 other countries

in reading, math, and science,

I was bothered.

With all the great opportunities
that we have in this country,

it bothered me to think that our students
are falling so far behind.

Our teachers are fabulous in America.

We have very dedicated people
who work very, very hard.

Our students are hardworking as well.

We have some wonderful students

who are eager to learn
and come to class every day,

wanting to learn more
with great aspirations.

At the same time, I feel
the parents are very supportive.

Some of the reports that came out said,

"Oh, America doesn't have
supportive parents,"

but I've seen the opposite.

I've seen very, very supportive parents

who want the best education
for their children.

And when they're looking for new homes,

they go out to find
the best school district,

and they'll inquire
of a real estate agent,

"Where is the best school district?"
or, "What schools are best?"

And at the same time,

our schools are like palaces
compared to other countries.

We have cafeterias in our schools.
We have gymnasiums.

We have auditoriums
like this one in our schools.

Some of our schools, about half,
have football fields

and then separate baseball fields.

Compared to other countries,
we have amazing schools.

So then, what's wrong
with American education?

Where are we going wrong?

What is the elephant in the classroom?

I gave this question a lot of thought,

and I realized that what's wrong
with American education

is our grading system

and something that I would call
"anti-teaching" or even "gotcha grading,"

where we make our teachers
go out and try to minimize students

so that they can get a nice distribution
of grades for their students.

You know that teacher
who gave you a surprise quiz

when you least expected it?

You know that teacher
who announced to the class

there are going to be
trick questions on the test?

You know the teacher who put questions
on tests that weren't even in the class

or in the textbook?

Or the teacher that barely
taught the material

such that the students
had to all go out and get tutors?

And you had a whole classroom
filled with students

who were all on the side
getting tutored in the subject

so that they could get
a decent grade in that subject.

And you know that teacher
who gave you a B+

on your first essay paper that semester?

And you said to yourself,

"I'm going to work so hard
I'm going to get an A in that course."

And then you handed in that next paper,
and you got that B+ again.

And no matter what you did
in that course -

you could all gone out,
and hired a Nobel Prize winner -

you knew you were still getting
a B+ in that course

because you knew that that teacher
had you pegged as the B+ person.

These are no accident.

These are all examples

of what I would call
"anti-teaching" and "gotcha grading."

I first came upon this realization
when I was teaching college,

and I had just finished
a wonderful semester,

the kind of semester
that you feel is magical as a teacher.

The students worked hard.

In order to get into my class,

they had to pass
a number of prerequisites.

And so these were all the kids
who did well in the prerequisites

and came into my class,

and I was excited to be teaching them,
and they were excited to be there.

There were tests, there were quizzes,
there were lots of papers -

it was a very rigorous curriculum.

And at the end of the semester,

I was so excited when I had
to grade these students

because the majority of them
had earned As,

and there were some Bs in the class.

And I thought, "Wow, I'm a good teacher,
and they're good students,

and we were all happy together."

Well, a few days later, I ran into
my department chair in the hall,

and he said, "You know,
I want to talk to you about your grades."

And I naively said,
"Yeah, isn't it fantastic?

My students did so well.
They worked so hard.

We had great class discussions.

It was just an amazing semester."

And he said, "Yeah, that's what I want
to talk to you about."

He said, "You can't have grades
like this next semester.

You've already given these grades
to your students, so I can't change them.

But next semester,

I want your grades to reflect the grades
of the rest of the department."

Here were the grades
of the rest of the department.

He said, "Give one-third Cs,
one-third Bs, and one-third As."

And he said, "We hold to that
pretty strictly here

as some universities do that."

Princeton just changed
their grading system,

I think, this past month,

but many schools hold very strictly
to the one-third, one-third, one-third.

And I said, "But wait,

what if my students really worked hard,
and they earned those As?

It wasn't, like, I randomly gave As
to make them happy.

They earned them - their paper averages,
their test averages,

their quiz averages were As."

And I said,

"Also because they had to take
prerequisites to get into the class,

these were all solid A students
coming into my class.

It wasn't like I could
just randomly give Cs,"

and he said, "Well, you're going to have
to throw the students a little bit."

And I said, "What does that mean?"

And he said, "Well, give
some surprise quizzes next semester,

maybe give some tests
with trick questions on them,

or maybe create a curve -

announce to the class
you're going to curve their grades -

so that kids who you'd normally give
a B to might get a C now,

and the kids with the A- might get the Bs,

and the kids with A+ will get the As.

And that way,

you'll be able to do one-third As
and one-third Bs and one-third Cs."

Well, that hurt. I didn't like that.

I always felt like if you earn something,
you should get what you earned.

But he said I should go home
and think about it.

I said, "Well, why are we
doing this exactly?"

And he said, "Grade inflation.
We have to worry about grade inflation."

Which made no sense to me either

because grade inflation
is not monetary inflation,

and nothing would happen
if people who earned As actually got As,

but I did say I would go home
and think about it.

And he said, "I want you to grade
more like your colleagues

in the next semester."

Next semester came along,

and on the first day,
I walked into my new classroom,

and I saw 24 students
with their eyes shining and bright

and eager to learn,

and I wanted to claim that magic back.

I loved teaching;
I loved reaching the students;

I loved that connection.

And I said, "I'm going
to reach these students,"

but then there was this burden suddenly.

I had to give out of the 24 students -
8 of them had to get Cs,

and I looked around the room,

and I found myself studying the students,

saying, "Hmm, who can I dump the Cs onto?"

Well, we went around the room,
introducing ourselves,

and there was a girl in the back row
who seemed very shy and quiet,

and she didn't make
any eye contact with me,

and I thought to myself,
"Aha, there's a C.

She's not going to give me
any flack for that C.

I can get away with giving her a C."

And just then, a boy
walked into the classroom

and apologized profusely saying,

"I'm sorry.

I had a class at the other
end of the campus,

and it took me a long time to get here.

I'm going to try hard to get here on time,

but I can't guarantee it,
and I'm really sorry."

And I kind of smiled inside,
a very wicked smile, saying,

"Aha, there goes another C,

especially if I teach a lot of material
in the first five minutes of class,

I can really catch him."

Well, that night, I went home,

and said, "You know what?

That magic of teaching,
of reaching one-on-one with a student,

that's missing.

What happened?"

And suddenly, I felt like
it was me against the students,

or I was against the students,

and I had to find my eight Cs
in the class before I can have some peace,

and then I'd have to find
eight Bs in the class,

and that was going to be my mission.

It had nothing to do
with teaching this class.

It had to do with finding the kids
I could dump the Cs and the Bs on.

And I said that's not the kind
of teacher I wanted to be.

That's not the person I want to be.

That's not what teaching really should be.

And so, I resolved that night

that I'm not going to play
the anti-teaching game -

I'm going to give my students
the grades that they earned.

I knew that that would mean
that at the end of the semester,

I would probably have to say goodbye
to that university,

but I wanted to be the teacher
that I wanted to be.

My solution to this problem,
because it's prevalent,

is to end grading altogether.

I would replace it
with mastery-based learning

where every teacher gets freed
to really teach all the students

and not to booby-trap
some of the most vulnerable students

in the classroom.

Only when we allow teachers

to fully try to teach every single kid
in the classroom,

will America rise to the level
at the top where it belongs.

Thank you.

(Applause)