Letter grade system has many benefits

Sticking to letter grading does more good than harm

Laniyah Thornton

The decision to keep letter grading is more beneficial than using pass-fail grading which would allow students to be negligent and end up getting left behind. Pass-fail grading could also cause confusion and a false sense of comfort as to how a student is doing in school.

Pass-fail is more beneficial to students who do better with in-person learning, have poor internet, struggle with mental or physical health issues, and so on. Although these are good reasons, pass-fail is just a school approved way for students to be careless about their school work.

Having the pass-fail grading system would allow students to pick and choose what assignments they do. With pass-fail, teachers would have a difficult time figuring out if students are being neglectful, or if students are genuinely struggling. 

Under a pass-fail system, students can end up getting set back when they choose to skip assignments. The many high schoolers that choose to do so will encounter a slow or fast decline in their grade percentage, and will more than likely end up falling behind their classmates and struggle to get their grades up. This will end up negatively affecting the student with numerous consequences such as getting held back or being put in summer school.

By choosing to stick with the letter grade system, students will feel obligated to try harder. The letter grade system lets students know how they’re doing, if they can see how they’re doing they can know what they need to do better and work on improving.

The letter grade also easily helps parents know how their child is doing, as they are accustomed to this grading system. The pass-fail system could also lead parents into a false sense of security that their child is doing well. This is because a simple pass or fail doesn’t show parents if their child is doing well or not, what they see is a pass means their child is doing well, even though that might not be the case. 

Overall, there are more disadvantages than advantages to the pass-fail grading system. Switching to pass-fail can cause confusion and a big drop in students’ grades. Sticking to the letter grade system shows students where they are and gives them the motivation to improve on what they need to. It also shows parents where their child is at. Overall, the letter grading system is more beneficial to the student and the instructor.