Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings, and Rankings Undermine Learning

Summary

Anyone who has ever crammed for a test, capitulated to a grade-grubbing student, or fretted over a child's report card knows that the way we assess student learning in American schools is freighted with unintended consequences. As experts agree, our primary assessment technologies—grading, rating, and ranking—don't actually provide an accurate picture of how students are doing in school. Worse, they distort student and educator behavior in ways that undermine learning and exacerbate inequality. Yet despite widespread dissatisfaction, grades, test scores, and transcripts remain the currency of the realm.

In Off the Mark, Jack Schneider and Ethan Hutt explain how we got into this predicament, why we remain beholden to outmoded forms of assessment, and what we can do to change course. They offer a range of practical reforms, like embracing multiple measures of performance and making the so-called permanent record "overwritable." As they explain, we can remake our approach in ways that better advance the three purposes that assessment currently serves: motivating students to learn, communicating meaningful information about what young people know and can do, and synchronizing an otherwise fragmented educational system. Off the Mark is a guide for everyone who wants to ensure that assessment serves the fundamental goal of education—helping students learn.