Grades are a well-established part of the K-12 education system that, in most school districts, play a decisive role in students’ academic standing.
But what goes into the single letter or number that a grade represents? Just how malleable is a grade after it’s been issued? And what effect does grading work have on students’ performance?
In December 2024, the EdWeek Research Center conducted a national survey of 759 K-12 teachers to glean answers to these and related questions. Here’s what the results showed.
There’s a lot of hype these days around “grade grubbing” by students and parents. And while the act of requesting a grade bump may be common in certain academic environments—especially high-pressure ones—less than half of teachers (44 percent) surveyed reported changing a grade in the past two years. Only 11 percent fell into “chronic” grade changing practices, that is, granting grade change requests more than five times in the past two years.
The pandemic disrupted learning for all students, and led many educators to adopt a “grace before grades” approach. When schools returned to in-person instruction, concerns about students’ mental health, academic recovery, and motivation led districts to explore more flexible, and at times controversial, approaches to grading.
Against that backdrop, it’s notable that 37 percent of survey respondents said they now change grades at about the same rate as they did before the pandemic. While 12 percent reported changing grades more often since the pandemic, 7 percent said they now do so less frequently.
According to the EdWeek Research Center survey, when teachers did change grades in the past two years, they most often made them higher.
That trend aligns with post-pandemic research. For instance, one statewide study in Washington that examined middle and high school students’ grades in math, science, and English pre- and post-pandemic found that almost no students received an F in the spring of 2020, and that the percentage of A’s students received rose significantly. Post-pandemic, science and English grades returned to pre-pandemic levels, but math grades remained elevated.
Multiple studies using federal data have found widespread grade inflation at the high school level since the pandemic.
A large percentage of survey respondents who reported changing grades said they did so because of errors in calculating original marks. But external pressure to raise grades also played a role—with requests coming from administrators, parents, and even students themselves. The practice of elevating grades, as reported by survey respondents, aligns with multiple nationally representative studies showing a trend in grade inflation over the past several years.
Survey respondents said they rely on a range of factors—beyond just test scores, papers, projects, and other assignments—when determining final grades.
Some of those factors are subjective, such as “My perception of students’ ability” and “My perception of the student’s level of maturity compared to others in class.”
Coincidentally, the practice of traditional grading, which includes nonacademic measures like participation or effort, can inadvertently perpetuate inequities, according to grade-reforming researchers.
How grades influence students’ motivation and engagement has long been a subject of debate. Responses from survey respondents suggest that there continues to be little consensus on the topic.
For example, 23 percent of respondents agreed that a stronger emphasis on grades would increase students’ motivation, whereas 16 percent thought the opposite to be true. Meanwhile, 36 percent of respondents agreed that changing the emphasis on grading would have no impact on motivation or engagement.
Recent research indicates an inverse relationship between grades and student motivation. In a 2018 study on the subject, researchers concluded that grades did not increase students’ motivation, but that they did cause students’ anxiety levels to rise.
Gerald E. Knesek, a human resources executive-turned-educator writing on the Harvard Business Publishing website, observed that “students have become more focused on the rewards and punishments, namely grades (an extrinsic motivator), and less on the desired behavior, learning (an intrinsic motivator).”
