One of the reasons we decided to rethink our approach to arriving at letter grades was
our concern for students who lose hope: our strugglers.

We find that, when we use Learning Maps along with specific samples of work, the picture of what students are expected to learn and are able to do is more concrete. As a result, our struggling students start to see where their letter grade came from. Before we used Learning Maps, some students found it hard to see that they had made any progress at all. The Learning Map can show them where they did improve in some of the learning standards in a subject, even though the overall grade may have stayed the same. For example, in mathematics, an individual might have improved in computation, but his or her problem-solving is weak because the reading of the question is often confusing. So, rather than having a student think, “I am stupid in math,” we point out on the Learning Map where he or she did improve in one aspect and where skills still need to be strengthened.

The issue is one of motivation. Some resources worth reading and talking about include
those by Carol Dweck (2007), Daniel Pink (2009 ted Talk), and Alfie Kohn (2011). The growing awareness of the connection between motivation and letter grades gives us hope that this area of motivational research will help change the whole approach to how schools report on student progress.