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SANTA CRUZ, Calif. 鈥� Joy Malak floundered through her freshman year in college.

鈥淚 had to learn how to balance my finances. I had to learn how to balance work and school and the relationship I鈥檓 in.鈥� The hardest part about being a new college student, Malak said, 鈥渋s not the coursework. It鈥檚 learning how to be an adult.鈥�

That took a toll on her grades.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 do well,鈥� said Malak, who powered through and is now starting her sophomore year as a neuroscience and literature double major at the University of California, Santa Cruz, or UCSC. 鈥淚t took a while for me to detangle my sense of self-worth from the grades that I was getting. It made me consider switching out of my major a handful of times.鈥�

Experiences like these are among the reasons behind a growing movement to stop assigning conventional A through F letter grades to first-year college students and, sometimes, upperclassmen.

Called 鈥渦n-grading,鈥� the idea is meant to ease the transition to higher education 鈥� especially for freshmen who are the first in their families to go to college or who weren鈥檛 well prepared for college-level work in high school and need more time to master it.

But advocates say the most important reason to adopt un-grading is that students have become so preoccupied with grades, they aren鈥檛 actually learning.

鈥淕rades are not a representation of student learning, as hard as it is for us to break the mindset that if the student got an A it means they learned,鈥� said Jody Greene, special adviser to the provost for educational equity and academic success at UCSC, where several faculty are experimenting with various forms of un-grading.

If a student already knew the material before taking the class and got that A, 鈥渢hey didn鈥檛 learn anything,鈥� said Greene, who also is director of the university鈥檚 Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning. And 鈥渋f the student came in and struggled to get a C-plus, they may have learned a lot.鈥�

Critics respond that replacing traditional A to F grades with new forms of assessments is like a college-level version of participation trophies. They say taking away grades is coddling students and treating them like 鈥渟nowflakes.鈥�

Bradley Jackson doesn鈥檛 use those words. But Jackson, vice president of policy at the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, said that by getting of grades, 鈥渨e get rid of crucial information that parents and students use to determine what they鈥檙e getting out of the expensive educations they鈥檙e paying for.鈥�

Some of the momentum behind un-grading is in response to growing concerns about student mental health. The number of college students with one or more mental health problems , according to a study by researchers at Boston University and elsewhere. Teenagers said that the pressure to get good grades was , a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center found.

鈥淎 lot of the time I鈥檓 just so stressed in the class that I can barely focus,鈥� said Serena Ramirez, a UCSC freshman. 鈥淣ow you鈥檙e an adult, you鈥檙e by yourself, you鈥檙e responsible for your grades. The additional stress of grades just sort of undermines the whole learning.鈥�

That was also the case for Tamara Caselin in her freshman year at UCSC. She worked 40 hours a week on top of school and ended up changing her major, which was originally business management economics. 鈥淚 felt that I was way too focused on my grades, that I wasn鈥檛 focused on my personal well-being,鈥� said Caselin, who is now a junior.

The Covid-19 pandemic made things even worse. It 鈥渂rought to light the stressors students have in their lives,鈥� said Nate Turcotte, an assistant professor in the Department of Leadership, Technology and Research at Florida Gulf Coast University who is using assessments other than grades. That鈥檚 why some of the nation鈥檚 most prestigious universities switched from letter grades to 鈥減ass鈥� or 鈥渇ail鈥� at the outset of the crisis.

The pandemic era鈥檚 wide-scale disruption also makes it a good time to consider changing long-held educational practices, said Robert Talbert, a math professor at Grand Valley State University in Michigan who is co-writing a book about new ways of assessing students and has tried some in his own classes. 鈥淓verything seems to be on the table right now. Why not throw in the grading system while we鈥檙e at it?鈥�

Responded Jackson: 鈥淭o say that because we鈥檝e been through a very difficult and trying time, we now need to give up forever into the future these objective criteria that we use in order to determine whether students are improving 鈥� that seems to me to be a tremendous overreaction.鈥�

In addition to those at UCSC, a small but growing number of faculty and some academic departments at universities and colleges nationwide are experimenting with alternative kinds of assessments.

Although they鈥檙e not eliminating grades, some instructors in the mathematics department at the University of California, Davis, are letting students decide between taking verbal and written exams, for instance, and giving them a choice of how much those exams and homework count, said Tim Lewis, the department鈥檚 vice chair for undergraduate matters.

鈥淭hese efforts are meant to improve learning outcomes, as well as to be fair and advance equity, especially for new students and transfer students,鈥� Lewis said.

The developments in California follow a March report to the University of California Board of Regents鈥� Academic and Student Affairs Committee that ; it encouraged schools to explore new means of assessment.

Several colleges and universities outside of California already practice unconventional forms of grading. At Reed College,  so that they can 鈥渇ocus on learning, not on grades,鈥� the college says. Students at New College of Florida complete contracts establishing their goals, then get written evaluations about how they鈥檙e doing. Evergreen State and Hampshire colleges forgo letter grades in favor of written evaluations. And students at Brown University have a choice among written evaluations that only they see, results of 鈥渟atisfactory鈥� or 鈥渘o credit鈥� and letter grades 鈥� A, B or C, but no D or F.

鈥淚t takes stress and anxiety away and it prioritizes their mental health. But more importantly, it prioritizes their learning,鈥� said Turcotte. 鈥淚nstead of 鈥榃hat did I get?鈥� it鈥檚 鈥榃hat did I learn?鈥� There鈥檚 a freedom to explore, a freedom to take chances without this fear of, 鈥楢m I going to get marked down for this?鈥� 鈥�

MIT has what it calls 鈥渞amp-up grading鈥� for first-year students. In their first semesters, they get only a 鈥減ass,鈥� without a letter; if they don鈥檛 pass, no grade is recorded at all. In their second semesters, they get letter grades, but grades of D and F are not recorded on their transcripts.

鈥淪tarting any university is challenging to get acclimated academically to a new environment and it鈥檚 a big change for most students because for many of them it鈥檚 their first time away from home or at a new school,鈥� said Ian Waitz, MIT鈥檚 vice chancellor for undergraduate and graduate education and a professor of aeronautics and astronautics.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a desire to have that acclimation to the entire environment happen in a less abrupt way, where people have more of an opportunity to get calibrated.鈥�

Many proponents of un-grading say it addresses the unfairness of a system in which some students are better ready for college than others, have to balance school with work or are first generation and feel extra stress to perform well as a result of it.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 a lot of pressure, and I hear a lot, like, 鈥楬ow are your grades?鈥� 鈥� said Amaya Rosas, who also attends UCSC and is the first in her family to go to college. She said she feels as if 鈥淚 need to get good grades because I don鈥檛 want to let everybody else down.鈥�

Greene said students who come from lower-income families are the most vulnerable to anxiety from grades. 鈥淟et鈥檚 say they get a slightly failing grade on the first quiz. They are not likely to go and seek help. They鈥檙e likely to try and disappear.鈥�

Some drop out altogether. 鈥淥ne of the things that they say again and again 鈥� it鈥檚 kind of heartbreaking 鈥� they say, 鈥業 wasn鈥檛 satisfied with my academic performance,鈥� 鈥� Greene said. 鈥淵ou know, they鈥檙e not saying, 鈥業 hated the school鈥� or 鈥楳y teachers were terrible.鈥� 鈥�

What grades often actually show, said Turcotte, 鈥渋s if someone is food insecure or comes from a home without the support that other individuals have. There are a lot of educators out there and parents and people involved in education who are wondering how can we better help our students while also recognizing the complexities of their lives.鈥�

Students who work while in school are also 鈥渓ess likely to do the extra work to get things done perfectly, or they may have had to take an extra shift at work or they don鈥檛 have transportation so they鈥檙e late for class,鈥� said Susan Blum, a professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame and the editor of 鈥淯ngrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning (and What to Do Instead).鈥� By comparison, she said, higher-income classmates 鈥渉ad Ph.D. historians teaching them in their fancy high schools.鈥�

When she was a freshman, Olivia Disabatino 鈥渟aw that I didn鈥檛 necessarily have all the resources that other students had when it came to just being prepared for college.鈥�

Disabatino, now a UCSC junior double-majoring in psychology and anthropology and also the first in her low-income family to go to college, said: 鈥淚 kind of felt like a deer in the headlights.鈥�

None of that is conducive to learning, said Joshua Eyler, director of faculty development at the University of Mississippi, who is also working on a book about grades, called 鈥淪carlet Letters.鈥�

鈥淕rades inhibit students鈥� creativity and their desire to take intellectual risks,鈥� Eyler said.

Instead, they鈥檝e become 鈥渁 magnet for student anxiety,鈥� said Adam Light, an assistant professor of physics at Colorado College. 鈥� 鈥業 only got a 93? Why didn鈥檛 I get a 94?鈥� 鈥�

Light enters into contracts with his students about what tasks need to be learned. 鈥� 鈥楬ere are the things I think are important for you to get out of this class,鈥� 鈥� he tells them. 鈥淎nd I ask, 鈥榃hat are your goals for this class?鈥� And we come up with consensus. Students know exactly what has to get checked off to get a better grade.鈥�

UCSC, which was opened as an experimental progressive campus built among a dense forest of redwoods, bay laurels and California oaks, previously let students choose whether or not to get letter grades. As the public university grew, it made grades mandatory in 2000. But some of its faculty have continued to promote un-grading.

Instead of grades, for instance, psychology professor Barbara Rogoff鈥檚 students get narrative evaluations that assess their work as, among other things, 鈥渋mpressive,鈥� 鈥渆xtremely well developed鈥� or 鈥渦neven.鈥� Only at the end of the quarter does she assign required letter grades.

鈥淚 can say, 鈥楾his student did really well in their contributions to the class, but they struggled with their writing.鈥� If it鈥檚 a grade, you have to average those two,鈥� said Rogoff, who specializes in cultural variations in learning. 鈥淚t makes the teachers, the professors, look at themselves more as guides rather than evaluators.鈥�

As for the students, they learn better if they鈥檙e not focused on grades, she said. Grades 鈥渕ake students concerned about how they look rather than dealing with the material.鈥�

That鈥檚 to say nothing of students who can game the system, said Talbert, at Grand Valley State. 鈥淲hen you see a grade on an assignment or report card, it tends not to convey a lot of information about what a student actually has learned. The grade itself has turned into the target. Learning is just a vehicle by which to earn a grade.鈥�

But while he likes the idea of un-grading, Talbert鈥檚 own experience has made him question whether it鈥檚 necessarily a solution to inequity. Since the students in the algebra class in which he tried it were required to evaluate their own performance, he said, 鈥淲hat I found is that un-grading as a system is exactly as good as my students鈥� ability to self-assess. Those from more privileged backgrounds feel more competent to self-reflect, whereas other students struggle with that.鈥�

Other realities also make it hard to change the longstanding tradition of letter grades. It鈥檚 how faculty themselves were largely judged as they went through college. Parents, high schools and university admissions offices put a premium on grade-point averages 鈥� an even greater one as many institutions make the SAT and ACT optional. Even car insurance companies give 鈥済ood-grades discounts鈥� to student-age drivers.

鈥淚t鈥檚 built into the system,鈥� Rogoff said. 鈥淭hese are big forces that are working against getting rid of grades.鈥�

But grades may not be the real problem, said Michael Poliakoff, president of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni. He pointed out that only 25 percent of high school students who took the ACT test last year , which gauge the likelihood that they鈥檒l succeed in first-year college courses; 38 percent met none. The composite score was the lowest in more than a decade.

By getting rid of grades, 鈥淚 really fear that we鈥檙e shooting the messenger because we don鈥檛 like what we鈥檙e hearing,鈥� Poliakoff said. It鈥檚 just setting up students 鈥渢o slam into the wall, ultimately,鈥� and end up with a 鈥渢icket-to-nowhere diploma that doesn鈥檛 represent the mastery of skills that will equip the person for success.鈥�

Colleges and universities are already losing the confidence of the country, said his colleague Jackson. 鈥淭o the extent that they take away standards and take away these objective indices of performance and reliability, they鈥檙e going to decrease the value of their own degrees.鈥�

But Greene, the UCSC special adviser to the provost, said that grades 鈥渁re terrible motivators for doing sustained and deep learning. And so if we were to shift our focus on to learning and away from grades, we would be able to tell whether we were graduating people with the skills that we say we鈥檙e graduating them with.鈥�

Rogoff compares this to her own hobby: dancing.

鈥淚 got stiffer when I thought I was being watched and evaluated for how I was dancing,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 that sort of performance anxiety when you think people are watching you, and especially if you think you鈥檙e probably going to be judged badly.鈥�

She added: 鈥淚 learned how to get past the self-judgment and the judgment of other people and just enjoy the dancing for the dancing. And I think that鈥檚 what my students experience in my class, where I鈥檓 helping them see that there is something important about what we鈥檙e learning in this class and that that鈥檚 a bigger thing鈥� than grades.

This story about  was produced by , a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education, in collaboration with KQED in San Francisco. Sign up for our .

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