How to Evaluate Students

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/23/opinion/how-to-evaluate-students.html

Version 0 of 1.

To the Editor:

Re “Putting Grit in Its Place” (column, May 10):

As David Brooks says, the grade point average trains students to be good at spouting answers to other people’s questions. Narrative evaluations are infinitely better than grades for educating students and measuring academic progress.

Without an arbitrary stopping point, students often push beyond what’s needed for a grade, and surprise themselves with what they accomplish.

Narrative evaluations also enable students to understand strengths and weaknesses in their work and how to improve it. And they are more like real-world assessments, since grades will not be part of students’ lives after graduation, but detailed feedback on performance will.

In our research with our students, we found that those who thrive in a program based on narrative evaluations also tend to be highly collaborative and empathetic.

When students do not chase grades, but instead rigorously pursue the questions that drive them under the mentorship of faculty, they focus on inquiry and innovation. This is sorely needed, not just in Mr. Brooks’s “modern economy,” but in a world of challenges too complex to be solved without cooperation and cultural understanding.

JONATHAN LASH

President, Hampshire College

Amherst, Mass.