Ashwin Prabaharan ’26

Chief Opinions Editor 

Contract grading, a new system engineered by professionals in higher education, is sweeping through the halls of academia across the country. Essentially, the system creates an agreement between a student and their teacher where both parties agree on the criteria needed to be met in order to achieve a certain grade in the course. The system guarantees that the student knows exactly what is expected of them in order to achieve a certain grade in the class, whether it be the completion of assignments or reaching a specified quality. Students can essentially choose their path when it comes to tackling their course, picking and choosing which assignments to complete to attain a grade they find to be satisfactory. The system gained a great deal of attention and support in the world of higher education from advocates seeking to create an equitable and anti-racist learning environment. Traditional grading, in their view, imposed a standard that graded a student solely based on their prior knowledge, which can create racial disparities in terms of academic capabilities. 

Students seek higher levels of education for multiple reasons, whether it be the experience of independent living or the ability to make new connections. What many seek, however, lies intrinsically within the nature of higher academia, which has been traditionally designed to challenge and move you past your current abilities. Professors design their courses to prepare students with relevant knowledge and complementary skills, and subsequently test or grade them to ensure understanding. This process also gives students the opportunity to receive feedback on any number of aspects of their course’s material, meaning they can find areas of improvement and work towards a higher desired grade that requires greater mastery of said material. Most importantly, this system sets up professors to judge the quality of their students’ work, ensuring that they leave their course not only understanding the material, but able to effectively demonstrate and convey the course material in other fields when needed. The system finds a role in the students’ post-course experiences, whether in future courses or in the professional world. It sets them up to attain success with the course material to the best of their abilities and beyond, showing a desire to improve and not only placate a student’s capabilities.

Contract grading defies this system by removing that premium placed on the quality of a student’s work and limiting the use of constructive feedback to help a student improve on their work, whether it be mastering a skill or being able to use it in future scenarios. This system also inhibits students’ potential by limiting their desire to seek the highest grade in a given course, instead offering a path for students to simply placate the level of interest or effort they are willing to put into said course. It is, simply put, a disservice to the student’s academic journey in an environment designed to challenge and expand their skill set if they are given the chance to essentially do the bare minimum to receive a passing grade in a course. Attending college or an institution of higher education carries with it the understanding that you are going to face tough challenges, situations where you need to move beyond your comfort zone and confront your intellectual weaknesses. Yes, professors and instructors may have rather individualized methods of grading, but the beauty of academia lies in that personalization: each professor was courted onto the staff of a department because of their skill set and the potential they hold to mold and craft students assigned to their courses. College is not meant to be an academic haven where you find continual success in all your endeavors. If that is the case, I can guarantee that you refuse to challenge yourself and are indeed doing your abilities a great disservice. We all aspire to enter into great fields of work, and to be the best of the best, we would want to be crafted by those very experts by receiving feedback and those tough grades that motivate us to be better. We need to be receptive to challenges that push us beyond our boundaries, both academically and personally. Otherwise, there is little point in paying huge sums to attend an institution of higher education other than to receive a piece of paper validating your current abilities. Seek to be challenged, since the struggle defines and shapes you immensely for the future.

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Copy edited by Lilly Baumfeld