The Problem of Grading
The proper distribution of credits opens up the complex problem of grading systems. The grading system is the basis of academic rewards and penalties. Yet it is recognized by pupils and teachers alike to be full of pitfalls. The ordinary system uses letters such as E for excellent, P for poor; or percentage designations such as 100 for perfect, 60 or 75 for just passing; or some other similar symbolism.
The ambiguities in the system arise in part out of the fact that individual teachers have the most divergent notions as to the meaning of each of the symbols.
Let us assume the case of a new teacher who has just come to a given school trying to find out what the other teachers mean by their marks. This teacher will be told that 100 per cent means perfection. But what is perfection in a subject? Is the student perfect when he tells what is in the textbook, or is there a demand for original thinking? Still more doubtful is the meaning of 90 per cent. Does this signify nine tenths of what a student might know, or is it a kind of vague statement meaning that the student is in the upper part of the class?
The new teacher will be very likely at this point, if he is intelligent about marking systems, to ask how many students in a class usually get 100 or 90. This question is based on a conception of the meaning of marks entirely different from that which was referred to in the last paragraph. Marks may refer, and often do refer, not to the degree of perfection in knowledge but to the relative position of the student in his class. Some teachers mark the best pupil 100 and then try to grade the rest from this standard.