Rigorous grading does not raise standards: It only lowers grades

Unveiling Some of the Mystery of Professional Judgment in Classroom Assessment

“…If grades have an inherent ambiguity, an inherent mystery, then what exactly is certified by a grade or by grades in the aggregate? According to Agnew (1995), decontextualized grades are meaningless: "The fact that low grades, high grades, any grades in isolation reveal nothing about institutional standards, quality of teaching, or student skills seems to have been overlooked by administrators, politicians, department heads, and (even) professors eager to latch onto some quantifiable 'proof' that students are being held to the 'rigorous grading standards' that Cole [another writer] recommends. In isolation, grades are meaningless" (p. 94).…”