Are Grades Getting in the Way of Learning? (8/15/26) - SC005

What if students could start high school or college without immediately feeling like every grade defines their future?

An ABC News article about the University of Michigan's approach to grading incoming freshmen sparked this conversation between Chris Nesi and Dan Kreiness, but the discussion quickly becomes much bigger than one university.

Grades are supposed to communicate learning. But what happens when students become more focused on earning the grade than actually learning? What happens when an A becomes the goal rather than evidence of what a student understands?

Chris and Dan explore the connection between grades and student mental health, drawing from their own experiences as educators, parents, and former students.

Dan shares what his own difficult transition into college was like and wonders whether a different grading approach might have changed some of his early college experience. Chris talks about students who become consumed by grades, and Dan talks about a memorable student who wanted to raise a 96 or 97 to a 100 because her parents had promised her something very specific: the opportunity to lease a horse.

The conversation eventually moves from college to high school—and even elementary school.

Could an approach like this help incoming ninth graders transition into a new academic environment? Could standards-based grading and rubrics help students understand where they stand without making the grade itself the center of the experience?

And perhaps most importantly:

Are students in our classrooms trying to learn—or are they just trying to earn?

Chris and Dan aren't offering a definitive answer.

They're asking you to join the conversation.

Key Topics Discussed

• Examine the relationship between grades, motivation, and student mental health.
• Consider whether students sometimes become better at "playing the game of school" than actually learning.
• Explore how a credit/no-credit approach could change the first-semester experience for incoming students.
• Recognize why high-achieving students can experience significant academic pressure.
• Question whether traditional grades always communicate what a student has actually learned.
• Consider how similar ideas might apply to incoming ninth graders.
• Reflect on how parents can respond to grades without making grades the center of the conversation.
• Identify students who may be easy to overlook because they are neither struggling nor exceptional.
• Reconsider what "doing your best" means when evaluating student performance.
• Discuss whether K–12 schools should do more to address student mental health through grading and assessment.

BIG Question

Should there be more done at the K–12 level, like the University of Michigan policy, to support students' mental health as it relates to grading and assessment?

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