Gradation - Is it right way to evaluate one's Ability or Knowledge?

Grades refer to standardized measurements of a person's ability in a subject, area or field. Grades can be assigned in letters, for example, A, B, C, D, E, F, as a range for example 4.0 - 1.0, as descriptors, for example, excellent, great, satisfactory, needs improvement, in percentages, or as a Grade Point Average (GPA). Gradation in Academic sense thus means a relative position in a graded series. The GPA can be used by educational institutions for educational assessment and evaluation and to measure potential and progress of students. Marks are generally given in percentages to encourage perfection and good presentation. Some schools often give grades too in lower classes in primary school. In higher classes, percentage differences up to two decimals are taken into consideration for ranking. The Board exams are given by students all over India in Class 10 and 12, also present the marks obtained in each subject in the report card. In colleges, a percentage or GPA system is optionally followed by various institutes. But mostly, percentages are used. For many schools up to 12th-grade high percentage above 90% is supposed to indicate the excellent quality of a student while in many undergraduate and graduate courses scoring above 65% also is very difficult, though it varies depending upon the board or University. A Cumulative Grade Point Average is the mean GPA from all academic terms within a given academic year, whereas the GPA may only refer to one term. Most countries have individual grading systems unique to their own schools. However, several international standards for grading have arisen recently.

The Grading System in India varies. However, the most predominant form of Grading is the Percentage system. An examination consists of a number of questions each of which gives credit. The sum of credit for all questions generally counts up to 100. The grade awarded to a student is the percentage obtained in the examination. The percentage of all subjects taken in an examination is the grade awarded at the end of the year. The percentage system is used at both the school and university. The Government of India on 31st August 2009, announced that it will introduce the Grading System in all Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools.

Advantages of Gradation/Grading System

• The system is an effective way to communicates the achievement status of students to their parents and others. Letter grades offer parents and others a brief description of students' achievement and the adequacy of their performance.
• It is a clear indicator of one's achievements and faults. When relating to learning it is generally accepted by both students and teachers as it is considered fairer.
• The existence of grades and other reporting methods are important factors in determining how much effort students put forth. Most students view high grades as a positive recognition of their success and some work hard to avoid the consequences of low grades.
• It also provides information to students for their own self-evaluation.
• It facilitates the selection, identification of students for providing certain educational paths or programs for their benefit.
• Grading system also provides incentives for students to learn and encourages them to do well.
• It is an effective way to document students' performance for further evaluation of the effectiveness of instructional programs.
• Grading system also separates students into smaller and better-defined categories.
• The system creates a base on which the university can build its foundation stronger than before.
• Regular checking on students' learning progress is an essential aspect of successful teaching.
• Good Narratives as report cards are time-consuming and as teachers complete more narratives, their comments become increasingly standardized. Standards-based reports are often too complicated for parents to understand and seldom communicate the appropriateness of student progress. Parents often get confused about their child's achievement in comparison to other children. It also perplexes them about its accordance with the teacher's expectations.

Disadvantages of Gradation/Grading System

• Sometimes the pressure of Grades is too much and it itself becomes a distraction in teaching among teachers and learning among students. This may result in risky behaviours like suicidal tendencies and other disorders.
• The grading system has a tendency to be misused. Some schools attempt to enhance the discriminatory function of letter grades by adding pluses or minuses, or by pairing letter grades with percentage indicators.
• Grading is recognized as measuring tools for teachers evaluation and students as well. Whereas teachers do not need grades or reporting forms to teach well and students can and do learn many things well without them. 
• Narratives and standards-based reports offer specific information that is useful in documenting a student's achievement. 
• Student's cultural differences, their appearance, family backgrounds, and lifestyles can sometimes result in biased evaluations of their academic performance. Teachers' perceptions of students' behaviour can also significantly influence their judgments of academic performance. Students with behaviour and handwriting problems who otherwise maybe academically proficient can also affect a teachers' judgment.
• Many times, students tend to withdraw from learning upon receiving low grades. And instead of promoting greater effort it prompts students to blame themselves for the low marks and a feeling of helplessness to improve prevails. In such a situation Grading becomes irrelevant and meaningless. Rather it discourages self-image.
• Using letter grades requires the abstraction of a great deal of information into a single symbol. In addition, the cut-offs between grades are always arbitrary and difficult to justify. Letter grades also lack the richness of other, more detailed reporting methods such as narratives or standards-based reports.

What should be Done?
Grading is a method of finding out how students are doing, what they have learned well, what problems or difficulties they might be experiencing, and what corrective measures need to be taken. The process should be primarily a diagnostic and prescriptive interaction between teachers and students. Since it involves judgment of the adequacy of students' performance at a particular point in time it should be primarily evaluative and descriptive only.

For Grading System to be effective it should not only evaluate a student's performance, it should also be liberal in appreciation of whatever the strong points of a student. In this way, it acquires a preventive and inspiring role.

When Grading teachers do both checking and grading as such they must serve dual roles as both advocates and judge for students - roles that are not necessarily compatible

Grading is a process of professional judgment and the more detailed and analytic the grading process, the more likely it is that subjectivity will influence results. This is why, for example, holistic scoring procedures tend to have greater reliability than analytic procedures teachers know their students, understand various dimensions of students' work and have clear notions of the progress made, their subjective perceptions can yield very accurate descriptions of what students have learned.

Single grading method adequately serves all purposes, schools must first identify their primary purpose for grading and then select or develop the most appropriate approach. This process involves the difficult task of seeking consensus among diverse groups of stakeholders.

Certain training programs need to be imparted to the teacher wherein they can identify, correct and be consistent in their assessment. This assessment would purely focus on a student's academic achievements and which would be devoid of the influence of a student's cultural differences, their appearance, family backgrounds, and lifestyles etc.

It must be recognized, therefore, that the primary purpose of grading and reporting is other than facilitation of teaching or learning. To develop grading and reporting practices that provide quality information about student learning requires clear thinking, careful planning, excellent communication skills, and an overriding concern for the well-being of students. Combining these skills with current knowledge on effective practice will surely result in more efficient and more effective grading and reporting practices.