And, perhaps most critically, Grades are generally just statistical noise. Yes, there are some three-sigma outliers who are consistently better or worse than t

And, perhaps most critically, Grades are generally just statistical noise. Yes, there are some three-sigma outliers who are consistently better or worse than the group, and these deserve special attention -- but productive attention, not just letter grades! For the vast majority of students, there is little to no signal in the grades. The grades people get are generally better attributed to the abilities of the teacher than the students. As Deming would say, grades (like "employee of the month" type things) are a pure lottery disguised as merit, which is an awful thing to subject humans to. ---- If I were a teacher, I would do what Deming did: give everyone a passing grade on sight. Then I would randomly sample assignments to see what the general quality of them is. If someone is performing significantly worse or better than the group, that requires a root cause analysis to see what's up. If the entire group is performing worse than desired, that's not the student's faults, but mine. So then I'd root cause myself. ---- My children are not yet of school age, but I sincerely hope I can strike a deal with their teachers about grades when it's time for that. I feel awful thinking about the fact that I might have to subject them to grading. Not because they are special snowflakes, but because it kills the human spirit.