Papers

Kohn, Alfie, "The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation", The Chronicle of Higher Education, November 8, 2002, volume 9, issue 11 p. B7 <http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/gi.htm> Accessed February 26, 2010

discusses and debunks assumptions that underlie the warnings about grade inflation ... (i) prof's job is to 'sort' students for employers and grad school, (ii) students should be set against one another in race for artificially scarce rewards, (iii) harder is better OR higher grades mean lower standards, and (iv) grades motivate

Kohn, Alfie, "The Costs of Overemphasizing Achievements", The School Administrator, November 1999, 56, 40-46 <http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/tcooa.htm> Accessed February 10, 2010

discusses how use of traditional number or letter grades can cause ... (i) students to lose interest in learning, (ii) students to avoid challenging tasks, and (iii) quality of student thinking to be less impressive