Special Topic / The Case Against Percentage Grades

Assessment and grading have become a major focus in education reform. But one basic component of most presentday grading systems stands as a major impediment to making grades fairer, more accurate, and more meaningful. That component is percentage grades. Percentage grades are the foundation of many state grading policies. Nearly every online grading program available to educators calculates percentage grades. Yet despite their popularity, percentage grades are difficult to defend from a procedural, practical, or ethical perspective.