The crux of the matter with the notes

One thing is certain: schools today no longer have much in common with what we remember them to be. The new millennium alone has brought numerous reforms to primary schools in this country - triggered by new pedagogical findings, international performance comparisons or management models for organisational modernisation. It is therefore all the more astonishing that something that was already controversial before is defying change: school grades. The topic is a perennial favourite, and the debate about it has flared up again.

Calls for the abolition of grades are becoming ever louder, as are doubts as to whether this form of performance assessment makes sense and is still in keeping with the times. But what about alternatives? Are learning reports, criteria grids or smileys better for learning than numbers on school reports? What are the experiences of schools that work with grade-free models? How do teachers, parents and children feel about them? And what does science have to say about the pros and cons of this heated debate? We investigated these and other questions for this dossier.

Visit to the pioneers

The journey first takes us to the Bernese Seeland. The hamlet of Schüpberg is shrouded in fog, but there is light coming from the timber-framed house at the end of the street. Inside, children are sitting in the morning circle. The guitar starts and the lessons at the Schüpberg comprehensive school begin. Schüpberg is one of four school locations in the municipality of Schüpfen and is situated on a hill away from the centre. The mini-school is a special case in several respects. It consists of a single class that 17 children and young people attend together from the beginning of primary school to the end of upper school. Those who live in the hamlet are automatically assigned to the Schüpberg comprehensive school.

However, it also offers space for children from other parts of the community who struggled in larger classes because the pace, noise level or risk of distraction were too high. At Schüpberg, on the other hand, the group is manageable and the support provided by the teachers is more intensive. And in the spirit of individualisation, a completely grade-free assessment concept is used here. In 2015, the cantonal education directorate approved a corresponding request from the school management. Even those who start the career choice phase do so without a grade report.

Assessment report instead of grades

Eighth-grader Anja, who joined the class two years ago, is no exception. After a taster apprenticeship as a chef, she is aiming for further apprenticeships as a farmer and as a horse specialist. She doesn't have a certificate from the company, but she does have an extended assessment report in which teachers describe the 15-year-old's academic abilities and also discuss her interdisciplinary skills.

An alienated example shows how such a report comes across: «She stands out due to her conscientious and independent way of working. This is one of the reasons why she has once again made great progress in writing texts in the past school year. She can write down her thoughts and ideas in an understandable and meaningful sequence.» Work on interdisciplinary skills is very important at the Schüpberg comprehensive school, says teacher and headmaster Philippe Villiger: «For many training companies, they are just as important as school performance.»

Notes cause stress

The extended assessment report, which the children receive once a year instead of a grade report, is based on various instruments that the Schüpberg Comprehensive School has developed to assess performance. These include learning assessments, but also much more. For example, the portfolio, in which pupils file work that has been particularly successful. Written feedback from teachers is also included, whether on academic or interdisciplinary topics. Recently, Anja received praise for her project on snails. Teacher Vanessa Cracknell recognised in handwritten lines that Anja had managed to overcome her low level of motivation. «I'm glad things are more relaxed here,» says Anja. «Elsewhere at sixth form, you either learn quickly - or you just can't keep up.» Grades put children under pressure.

Doubts as to whether grades can meaningfully reflect academic performance are not diminishing.

One of the main arguments against the traditional assessment system is also the result of various surveys. In 2021, for example, Pro Juventute surveyed over 1000 schoolchildren about stress. According to the survey, a third of them showed strong signs of stress. The main stressors included school and the feeling of not being able to fulfil its requirements. And in a study conducted by the Mercator Foundation Switzerland in 2023, around half of the 2,600 mothers and fathers surveyed stated that examinations and assessments at school caused their children stress and strain. However, the same survey also shows that although the number of those in favour of abolishing grades is increasing, especially among mothers and younger parents, the majority are against it overall. Daniel Auf der Maur from the Mercator Foundation Switzerland is not surprised by this: «Most adults only know school with grades. They have at most a vague idea of alternatives. It's mainly insecurity that makes us cling to the familiar.» And the former secondary school teacher knows: «Many parents demand grades because they want to know where their child stands at school. I understand that.»

The power of chance

However, the idea that grades are a meaningful and objective measure of a child's level of learning and performance is the crux of the matter from a scientific perspective: «Although grades serve as a basis for school selection decisions, they say relatively little about actual academic performance,» says Winfried Kronig, summarising the problem. He is Professor of General Special Education at the University of Freiburg and researches school selection, performance assessment and educational opportunities.

His research suggests that success at school depends less on hard work and talent than assumed, but is primarily a product of social privilege - and chance. Because: «There is a whole range of effects that distort judgements of academic performance.» According to Kronig, the most spectacular is the so-called reference group error. This occurs because classes differ significantly from one another in terms of the range of academic performance.

In this context, Kronig analysed data from 2000 sixth-graders. The results show the example of two classes: While in class B - small town environment, 22 children, 4 with a migration background - around 90 per cent of the examination tasks had to be solved correctly to achieve a grade of 5.5, in class A - small town environment, 20 children, 5 with a migration background - 60 per cent of the total points were sufficient for the same grade. Kronig knows that such deviations are no exception: «It's more the rule that the same performance is awarded a good grade in one class and a poor grade in another.» Outside of the classroom, grades lose their validity.

Same performance, different grade

In concrete terms, this can mean that the strongest pupil in one class would be one of the weakest if she happened to be in another. «Teachers cannot reflect this range of performance on their assessment scale,» says Winfried Kronig. «In the best-case scenario, it would mean giving the best student in the class a low average grade. Because this is not possible, teachers always choose a similar range on the scale, even if classes have different levels of performance. This creates massive distortions.»

This makes it easier for a child in a weaker class to achieve good grades. However, the opposite is true for performance development. Kronig was able to prove that average and weaker children make greater progress in stronger classes - but receive lower grades as a result. Feedback from school shapes a child's self-concept, the way in which they perceive themselves, their abilities and characteristics.

A positive self-concept helps children to master developmental tasks well, to be confident and to persevere even when things aren't going well. This includes knowing their own strengths and weaknesses, says Philipp Bucher, lecturer in school and teaching development at the FHNW University of Teacher Education. «I can't do maths», for example, is a poorly differentiated concept of ability. In contrast, a more productive self-assessment could be: «I'm good at algorithms and arithmetic, I'm also good at geometry, but I struggle with binomial formulae.»

Abolishing grades without reorganising the education system is pointless.

Markus Neuenschwander, educational scientist

Children do not develop such an attitude on their own, they are dependent on appropriate feedback. There are different ways of assessing academic performance, and academics cite three reference standards in this context: the individual - where have I made progress? -, the factual - what do I need to be able to do and where do I stand in this respect? - and social - how do I compare with others? «We know that children benefit most when they receive individual, but also criteria-orientated feedback,» says Bucher. «The social comparison that grades create weakens the self-concept and is rather detrimental to learning. At upper school, for example, it leads to pupils settling for a mediocre grade just because others did worse.»

Making progress visible

Katharina Maag Merki, Professor of Educational Science at the University of Zurich, also knows that a simple number is of little use as feedback. «What children need to learn is comprehensible information about what they can already do, where they still need to practise and what learning steps they need to take next.»

A look at the folder of a fourth-grader at Staffeln primary school shows what this can look like. The school was one of the first in Lucerne to replace numerical grades with a variety of alternative forms of assessment - at least during term time. According to cantonal law, it must issue a grade report every six months to children from the third grade onwards.

«Orientation in the millions» is the current topic in maths. Class teacher Daniela Muff and Juliette Kopp, teacher for integrative support, have created a criteria grid with 13 learning objectives. The first column describes the respective learning objective in words, the second illustrates it visually and the third is reserved for feedback from the teacher. There, Muff places a cross on a scale that provides information about where the child stands in relation to the learning objective. The fourth-grader in question is at the top end of the scale when it comes to ordering numbers by size or reading them off the number line - something she is already good at. She is in the middle of the field when it comes to subtracting, and she still needs to practise dividing more intensively.

«Ongoing assessment of the situation»

The grid is intended to show children their progress and provide them with guidance in the learning process. There are various opportunities for feedback or assessment by the class teacher. «This can be a learning assessment, a homework assignment or an oral contribution, for example,» says Muff. «We also often proceed in such a way that a child lets me know when they are ready to show me what they have learnt. I then schedule exclusive time for the child while the remedial teacher continues to work with the class.»

Checking competences and assessing how well developed they are is not something that teachers should save for exams, emphasises education researcher Maag Merki: «It has to be integrated into everyday school life, because good teaching thrives on feedback.» Various options are available for this, including digital learning apps, self-checks using the multiple-choice method, work with criteria grids or a few personal words from the teacher. «Such feedback functions should be used as often as possible,» says Maag Merki. «The aim is to continuously assess progress instead of doing it for 20 children at a time every few weeks.»

Why alternatives fail

There is no shortage of criticism of the system. And yet, at least on a broad front, there seems to be no way around the grades. Why is that? Especially as many schools already work with a variety of alternative assessment methods. From the perspective of educational research, however, their results are mixed in terms of informative value, pedagogical quality and practical feasibility. According to experts, there are good feedback tools among them that are more useful than grades for providing children with support-oriented feedback. However, when it comes to replacing grades as the basis for school career decisions, scientists are sceptical.

«It is well known that grades are an inadequate reflection of performance, and yet as a selection tool they have far-reaching consequences for educational pathways,» says education researcher Kronig. «The problem is that the current alternatives are just as susceptible to distortions.» According to Kronig, criteria grids that translate the competences listed in the curriculum into concrete learning goals and make it clear where a child stands in relation to these goals would be more meaningful than report card grades and offer better comparability between school achievements. «In the current system,» he is convinced, «such a form of assessment would not be feasible. It would fail because of the effort involved.»

This is what happened in the canton of Bern. Almost 20 years ago, the opposition of teachers there defeated the newly introduced «pupil assessment», which was conceived with the aim of assessing performance more transparently than with grades alone. Teachers were also supposed to use a grid to record where the child stood with regard to the objectives required by the curriculum. «They were busy with lists for so long,» says Kronig, «that the time for teaching suffered as a result.» Basel-Stadt also struggled with the feasibility of alternative assessment systems: In the now abolished orientation school - which comprised fourth to seventh grade from the late nineties onwards - assessment without grades was «so complex that it necessitated the editing of a manual for teachers and had to be introduced in courses», writes Pierre Felder, former head of primary schools, in the book «Für alle! The Basel primary school since its beginnings».

Are the dice falling too early?

Grades yes or no - this is not the decisive question, says Markus Neuenschwander, Head of the Centre for Learning and Socialisation at the FHNW School of Teacher Education: «It's about what kind of education system we want: an inclusive one in which children learn together regardless of their academic ability, or a segregated one that groups them into performance courses or levels? If we stick with the latter, we need an instrument that makes performance measurable in some way and justifies this grouping. Abolishing grades without reorganising the education system doesn't make sense in my view.»

Education researcher Kronig takes a similar view. «The selection mandate is at odds with the promotion mandate,» he says. «That's the catch. We can replace report card grades with alternatives, but that doesn't eliminate selection. A social problem cannot be solved pedagogically.» So is the call for the abolition of grades basically a call for a school without selection? «The demands of the professional world are becoming increasingly specific,» says education researcher Maag Merki.

«It's an important task for schools to pave the way so that young people with different skill profiles get to where they fit in.»

However, according to Maag Merki and Kronig - both of whom are researching the reasons for unequal educational opportunities - the course should not be set as soon as is the case here in Switzerland. After six years of primary school, selection takes place too early. «Most children don't leave the tracks they are put on after that,» says Maag Merki. «The permeability of our education system does little to change this. The fact that a higher school-leaving qualification, which offers better prospects, would still be possible later on often proves to be pure theory in reality.»

It doesn't work without grades

According to the education expert, it would be better if primary schools at least focused solely on the task of promoting learning - without compulsory selection, which distracts from this and puts teachers under pressure to accurately pigeonhole twelve-year-olds. «The longer children can concentrate on learning, the better,» says Maag Merki. «Later selection increases the chance that they will have improved their subject knowledge and gained maturity when it comes to making far-reaching decisions about their personal educational path.»

Everyone seems to agree on one thing: our school assessment system is unsatisfactory in many respects. But that doesn't mean teachers' hands are tied, says Lucerne primary school teacher Daniela Muff. «Critical voices say that alternative forms of assessment are an alibi exercise if grades have to be included in the report after all,» she says. «On the one hand, that's true. On the other hand, report cards are issued two days a year. I see no plausible reason why we shouldn't endeavour to provide more differentiated feedback on the remaining days to enable children to learn in a more motivated way.»