Jose, I wish that "drop outs" were allowed a certain amount of time to leave school to do what needed to be done without being penalized when they decide or are able to return. Maybe high school should only be 2-3 years for those who excel academically - kinda like getting out early for good behavior - but extended to 4 for those who need more time whether for academic reasons or family emergencies or even BOREDOM. If you are a college bound high schooler why not just graduate early and start college - you pretty much repeat many courses in college and many students dual enroll anyway... Just thinking. With the technology we have today almost anyone can learn anything from the privacy of their home. Even without technology courses and materials can be mailed to a home... Even without formal courses there are people who gain knowledge in their life on the job etc... just thinking. But, I LOVE thinking about educational alternatives...

Jose, you should be proud. I bet if I were to take a GED test right now I wouldn't pass it.

I've always wondered how YOU were educated. You are so creative. Were you considered "gifted" when you were in school?

What about writing? You say science was your best subject but did you like to write when you were in high school?

I became burned out on trying to obtain good 'grades' by my senior year in high school. I had too many classes such as algebra 4,history 4, trigonometry 3, and so on, and so on. I dropped out after a week or so and went on to work a job in order to support my family. My weakest area was always math but a construction job found me doing measurment calculations in my head and getting them right almost all of the time. My strongest area was science. After four years out of school I walked into VC and took the GED. I chose not to study and passed. Grades had been a part of my mentality for so long that I was a bit too proud of my 99 that I got on the science section.

I think what you have uncovered here should be implemented across the board. It takes away the stress to achieve a letter or number that students don't need to be burdened with. I'm sure i would have completed high school if things were so back then.

Mastery of any given subject should be the goal of all schooling and across all grades. One grade at the very end of the year is all that should be given. Or, a comment on the level of achievment the student has obtained. I'm not really one who likes change, but this would be a very good one.

I like private schools and homeschooling for the very reasons you sited.

Though some claim to have had success with it it's hard to imagine it working without our whole society experiencing a pedagogical paradigm shift. I guess that's why I'm drawn to the idea of free schools and democratic schools. Non traditional ideas are hard to pull off in a traditional system. Easiest here... ;)

Rebecca, diligent teachers use a grade book not only to record something at the end of six weeks, but to get a clear picture of concepts that need to be retaught. They revamp their lesson plans for necessary reteach. In a classroom of 25, if more than 5 or 6 don't make decent grades on an evaluation, then reteach is critical and especially in math. Certain building blocks must be mastered 75 to 100%, and it is really important that about 85% of the class falls in that range.

Twitter tale: We have participated in the Pizza Hut Book-it program over the years. One day I tweeted, "I wonder what Alfie Kohn would have to say about the Book-It program." I got a direct message from Alfie Kohn that said, "Fat kids who hate to read."

I thought that was funny.

The article is by the "Punished by Rewards" author. That is very interesting! =D

Speaking from a personal experience, I can tell you that this is one of those good ideas in theory that, it practice, is a disaster. Properly used, grades can motivate students to work up to their capabilities. Take away the grades and you take away a motivating factor. In addition, put yourself in the position of a parent who only finds out at the end of a semester that their darling "above average" student has flunked a course. My experience was with a high school in another state. The experiment lasted about five years and was finally discarded in the face of overwhelming opposition from the parents of the students in that high school. As I remember it, the only votes in favor of continuing the policy were from parents of students who were truly "gifted and talented", i.e. students who would have worked to their capabilities with or without grades.