Confessions of a Grade Inflater

Before assigning final grades, I steel myself for cusp numbers—each 76.3 and 89.5 and every other figure landing between A, B, C, and the oh-so-subtle levels of the letters. It’s absurd to think my year-end assessment accurate to the tenth, yet many students—particularly the most ambitious, hard-working, and conscientious ones—care deeply about that tenth.
I [...]

Homework for Mr. Kohn

Alfie Kohn, the education writer, has made a career of slaughtering academic sacred cows.
He’s written against competition in schools, against grading, scholastic awards, and other extrinsic incentives. He’s argued against testing as a way to measure learning and he questions the prominence of memory in education. His latest book, The [...]