re: "I no longer grade my students’ work – and I wish I had stopped sooner"

After the last 2 years, nothing shocks me anymore.

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Blacks are too stupid for grades

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Which is exactly what Academia is saying here. Academia is run by white liberals. Which is why white liberals are hands down the most racist people in the country.

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Funny for those in Louisiana taking LEAP things like spelling, punctuation, and grammar are not really a big deal. They worry more about the content that the student wrote than how they arrived at their point. A reason why many teachers no longer focus on things like that

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That's just one of the things wrong with the LEAP tests. They typically are really just designed for one skill (reading comprehension). They hardly touch on subject matter at all, and to the extent they do they negate it by scheduling the tests in the middle of semester that the subject they are testing is being taught instead of afterwards. They take away huge chunks of instructional time. And they are generally just poorly designed.

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College is pointless for 80% of students, they should be focused on technical skills that will help them more than a worthless degree

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I concur. I believe college is for some, but not all. College was for me; I got degrees in Accounting and Finance and an MBA and I have a well-paying job. That said, I would be terrible in trade. My brother dropped out of college, and has owned multiple businesses and is a extremely skilled handy-man (loves to work with his hands). He's doing well financially too (millionaire if you include his stake in his business). He went into the military and learned his trades there. He would have been terrible in college.

Grades are a measuring stick. Everyone knew everyone's grade for the first few years, and then we had our grades posted by our social security numbers (good times). I was near the bottom, since I had one of the highest numbers (was the case in 90% of classes unless we had someone from Florida or California - we had no Texas or Arizona numbers in my classes), so everyone always knew my grade lol.

25 year old Bird was in graduate school and a professor had a policy that if a person had an A after the first two tests they did not have to take the final but had to continue to go to class. This was a tough but interesting class and I worked very hard and was one of only three students to have an A after the second test.

The last three weeks I attended class and participated but with the pressure of grades removed. I stopped working hard and honestly I stopped learning.

Even though the class was useful and interesting it was the threat of the grade that motivated me to work hard and learn the material.

My point is if grades are gone most students will not learn as much.

Learning > Assessment

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Current students are in for a rude awakening in the real world. You don’t get graded in life. You get hired, reprimanded, fired, or a raise or salary cut.

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I don’t know, the hot HR trend in some industries like sales is going to an “ecosystem” model. No one is paid on straight sales numbers but MBO’s which makes employees play nice with the team etc along with showing preferred behaviors. Basically everyone is paid the same because there is no incentive to go out there and push.

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Equity is one of the words I hate most.

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This is base of all the latest progressive movements. It’s gone from equality to equity. From equal to wanting more than your fellow man. I not only hate it but it scares me to think people are actually buying into this bullshite.

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My point is if grades are gone most students will not learn as much.

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It's not exactly the same thing as the concept of ungrading advocated by the author of the article. Instead of grading everything only the final portfolio is graded. The professor provides feedback on assignments and allows for rewrites if the student wants to improve their final work. Then at the end of the semester the student turns in all their assignments and the final grade is based on that. The professor provides a grading rubric at the beginning the semester showing what "A" work, "B" work, etc. looks like. Students interpret their professor's feedback based on this rubric and can fix their work with the hopes of moving up to the grade they desire (not deserve). The thought is that students focus less on specific grades for specific assignments and more on the overall learning experience.

The author is also a tenured professor in the English Department at the University of Richmond, so maybe this works for her students and for what she teaches.

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The left would hate it if our youth started trending away from college toward technical/trade skills.

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The left is all about equity, not equality. They loathe merit on any level and think physical work is slavery.

They believe credentialism which is their bread and butter.