Numerical Bias ③ - The Significance and Essence of the 5-Point Grading Scale in Report Cards

In the previous post in this series, I explored the 'deviation score' (hensachi), which has long been the mainstream axis for academic performance evaluation. My motivation for starting that discussion was to question the anxiety surrounding the fact that many people focus on it and have turned it into a 'de facto standard'—an absolute status—and to suggest that things might look different if we just 'shifted' our perspective toward a more essentialist way of thinking. This title serves as a sequel to that.📖

　Report cards for junior high school semesters often use a 5-point scale. There has long been a debate over whether this is 'absolute evaluation' or 'relative evaluation,' but since that is not the main focus of this article, I will proceed with the assumption that it is 'relative evaluation' for now.

　I imagine that grades are determined comprehensively based on the results of midterm exams, final exams, quizzes, homework submissions, and classroom behavior. As everyone knows, if your score in those areas is high enough, you get a '5'.

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　It was a long time ago, but when I was in junior high and high school, I remember that although I studied diligently, my grades on my report card were not that good. Simply put, I didn't get many '5's.
　In other words, objectively speaking, this meant that my grades were 'not particularly high.' It was an undeniable fact, though.💦

　What I want to say with this old story is that I feel it was a kind of dissatisfaction with the 'way grades are assigned,' a sort of jealousy, thinking, 'Isn't it a bit crude to divide things into 5 levels?' At the time, we were threatened with the idea that 'the internal report score—the total of the three-year grades—is just as important as the score on the day of the entrance exam,' so I cannot deny that I had unique frustrations and anxieties.

　Like that, I passed through my exam period while still harboring those weak doubts, became a working adult, and stopped paying attention to it.

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　However, about 30 years after I first felt 'uncomfortable' with the established grading system because I 'couldn't get a 5,' I encountered a similar situation again!
　But this time, it was different from the feelings of 'jealousy' I had back then. Of course, it was directed at the mechanism and system of the '5-point scale'.

　My son, a first-year junior high student, is a hard worker. His grades improved in the second semester.⤴
※I will intentionally hide the first semester part here

　Even though his regular test results (both individual averages and by subject) were not necessarily top-class, the fact that so many '5's were lined up made me realize that I should properly accept the 'potential requirement' that most of them might be 'barely a 5, very close to a 4'. That point cannot be ignored.
　As a parent, I naturally praise him because it is the result of his hard work.

　Also, there is the opposite side to the above, isn't there?
　Instead of just looking at the numbers shown as 'results' and scolding or encouraging him, I realized that we must evaluate by looking at the essence, such as the process and learning attitude — in other words, in this example, I renewed my recognition that it might not make much difference even if he gets mostly '4's in the next term.💡

　Aren't a '5 that is very close to a 4' and a '4 that is very close to a 5' just a hair's breadth apart? Furthermore, when those line up across many subjects, for people who only look at things with a numerical bias, it becomes a huge difference, leading to a situation where the essence is not seen...
　It is something to be careful about.⚠

◆Scores on a 100-point test alone cannot reveal true ability.
◆Standard deviation scores are just a scale; if you don't consider the composition of the population, it ends up being a fuzzy metric. *Part 2
◆That said, evaluating through linguistic expression is also difficult, and
◆furthermore, aren't entrance exams or certification exams like Eiken that simply divide into [Pass/Fail] even worse? ⇒ I support score-based systems like TOEIC ✋

That sentiment seems likely to continue for a long time...

+++ The fact that it's not all 5s is what makes it clever 🤔
If you reach that point, the only way left is down.

☝ The inverted pillar seen at the Yomeimon Gate of Nikko Toshogu Shrine: It is similar to the idea of intentionally leaving it "incomplete" because "a building begins to collapse the moment it is completed" ---
and the view that 【The word "peak" actually has a negative connotation!】 is a perspective I have proposed.
⇒ I will upload it at a later date.

☟ Chiyoko-san's article was what inspired this article ✍

*** Introduction to the previous work in the series 🙇 ***

*** Introduction to well-received posts related to education 🙇 ***

#DesignThinking #Essence #Rationalization #BusinessImprovement #WhatIs #Ingenuity #Essence #Education #Grades #ReportCard #Study #Evaluation #Scale #FineLine