Essay

Gregory Bassham on why grades shouldn’t be based on effort: A recent study by Professor Ellen Greenberger and fellow researchers at the University of California, Irvine, found that a third of students surveyed said that they expected a B just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said they deserved a B for completing the required reading.

Jason Greenwood, a senior kinesiology major at the University of Maryland, would go even further.

“If you put in all the effort you have and get a C, what is the point?” Greenwood said.“If someone goes to every class and reads every chapter in the book and does everything the teacher asks of them and more, then they should be getting an A like their effort deserves. . . .What else is there really than the effort that you put in?” (Quoted in Max Roosevelt,“Student Expec- tations Seen As Causing Grade Disputes,” New York Times, Feb. 18, 2009, A15).

What else is there other than effort? What about performance?

As a college professor, I have no problem basing grades partly on student effort. I regularly reward students who faithfully attend class, participate actively, and do all the assigned readings. Sometimes I even give extra credit for extra work.

I do this because I believe that qualities like hard work, discipline, and determination are critical to success in both college and in life, and so de- serve to be rewarded. Also, effort is the one thing students can completely control. Everything else that factors into academic success—IQ, memory,

college preparedness, health, outside work and family commitments, etc.—is at least partly a matter of luck.

Nevertheless, most college professors—including myself—base grades much more on achievement than we do on effort.There are two good reasons for this.

First, there is no fair or objective way to measure effort in one’s aca- demic work.When I hand a student a test, I have no idea if they have stud- ied one hour for it or ten. If I gave out grades based on my perception of how much effort my students have expended, the grades would be wildly unfair and I would have to barricade myself in my office to ward off all the plead- ers and complainers.

In fact, students who say they should get B’s just for attending class aren’t claiming that grades should be based exclusively on effort.They’re saying that students who put in a minimum amount of effort should receive at least a decent grade. But this is a bad idea too.

It’s a bad idea because it defeats the two main reasons colleges give out grades at all. One is to allow students to assess their own learning—to determine if they are, in fact, learning what their professors are paid to teach them.The other is to let outside evaluators—notably employers and graduate admissions officers—know which graduates are likely to be the top performers.

This second function is absolutely crucial to our nation’s health and prosperity. Engineering firms need to know which potential hires will do good work, and which might design bridges that fall down. Medical schools need to know which student applicants are likely to become good doctors, and which might amputate the wrong limb.

Performance matters. In engineering. In medicine. In life.And until that changes, professors cannot base their grades on student effort.