The Problem with Public Schooling's Obsession with Grades and Tests

Is your GPA good enough? Are your SAT scores high enough? Did you take enough AP and honors courses? It seems like everything in school is based on quantitative results that don’t actually show much about a student’s ability to think. The purpose of education is to provide the youth with the tools to be independent thinkers and active members of society. But, with our emphasis on grades and scores, I think we’ve steered off course.

Since graduating as a part of Livingston High School’s class of 2014 and entering Bucknell University’s class of 2018, I’ve recognized just how competitive Livingston’s public education system truly was. Everyone tried to take more honors and AP classes, get higher grades, and go to better schools than their classmates. Students thought they were directly competing with one another for spots in America’s top universities. So, when it came to grades and scores, students would do whatever it took to get ahead.

Like I did in high school, students memorize information so they can spew them back out on a test like a machine to get an A. Then, after the test, they forget everything they just memorized to make room for the new information that they will then spew out on the next test. The cycle continues until the student graduates with a nearly perfect GPA.

What does this perfect GPA represent? In this case, it shows a student that figured out how to memorize to get the A without really absorbing the information. This is what author Denise Clark Pope describes as “doing school.” By working the system to perform on tests, whether it’s by cheating, memorizing, or seeing the teacher often to build a relationship, students can receive high scores without really learning anything. That perfect GPA is just an optical illusion.

With the focus of public education on grades, other values are being sacrificed. Students are not learning to use the information taught to them in their curriculum to critically think about world from various perspectives. They are not applying their knowledge to solve everyday problems. They are, instead, valuing high grades over academic integrity. So, what is the hidden curriculum of our grade-focused education system? Students are indirectly learning that as long as they produce high results – no matter how they do so – they can get ahead. This leads them to believe that actually comprehending information and developing critical thinking skills don’t really matter in the long run. Is this what we want the future of America to learn?

Focusing on grades rather than students’ understanding of knowledge does not promote the long-term comprehension of information or the exploration of curiosity; it only promotes temporary memorization and savvy test-taking skills. This has a serious consequence on the students’ futures. If they are not taught how to critically and creatively think, then they never learn to solve problems or question what they hear. Instead, they look for quick-fixes and easy ways out.

In our ever-changing world, students must grow up to be able to adapt and respond to problems and conflicts in creative and thoughtful ways. They also need to think for themselves and not be brainwashed by manipulative politicians. Climate change, fossil fuel dependency, crop failure, and a rising global population are all issues that my generation and the next generation will have to solve. In order to do so, children must grow up and learn to analyze, discuss, and solve problems in innovative ways – not memorize them and forget about them a few days later. We must come together as a society and determine what skills really should be taught in public education, before it’s too late.