Where Some Give Credit, Others Say It's Not Due

Brad Hopewell, who teaches social studies and theory of knowledge at Benjamin Banneker Academic High School in the District, said: "If a student is having a difficult time but works hard and puts forth a great deal of effort, I think that real-life skill should be rewarded. I frankly do not see how struggling students will be motivated to succeed if there are not some short-term rewards for their struggles."

Jaime Escalante, the Advanced Placement calculus teacher who inspired the film "Stand and Deliver," said he also raised grades for effort when he taught at Garfield High School in East Los Angeles. "If the kid put in a lot of hard work, I had to recognize that," he said by telephone from Bolivia, where he is semi-retired. "And if you put in a lot of effort, you're going to learn something."

But many teachers said their experience has been different. Better grades for showing up and turning in homework, they said, keep students from doing what is necessary to master the material.

"I think this has been a particular problem in some of the middle schools in the past," said David Stein, who teaches AP calculus and AP statistics at Montgomery Blair High School in Montgomery County. "It has resulted in some ninth-graders coming to high school expecting to pass their classes without actually learning anything."

Karen Gruner, who teacheschemistryat St. John's Literary Institute at Prospect Hall in Frederick County, said: "One of life's tough lessons is trying hard and failing. It does no kid anywhere any good to give grades based on trying hard or behaving nicely because sooner or later they hit the wall of not having the knowledge the grade implied."

Julie Greenberg, who also teaches math at Montgomery Blair High, said she, like Stein, agrees with her county's plan to reduce the effect of effort in the grading system. "My guiding principle in teaching is that telling the truth about mastery is the best thing I can do for now," she said. "We're way too new at this process of finally trying to evaluate mastery to stop in our tracks and encourage grading that blurs effort and mastery."

There is little conclusive research on grading practices, although one study by Lucas and University of Florida economist David N. Figlio indicated that Florida elementary school students showed more improvement on state tests if they had teachers who were tough graders. The researchers noted that tougher grading had no effect on students whose achievement levels were extremely low, and the study did not cover high schools.

Lucas said he thinks the solution is one grade on the report card for achievement and a separate grade for effort. This appears to be working in many elementary schools, but in high school it might bring arguments about which grades would figure into the grade-point average sent to colleges.

Clif Tramel, who teaches AP English literature at Weatherford High School in Weatherford, Tex., said he can persuade more students to stay in his challenging class if he does not grade them as harshly as some of their work deserves. That helps them, he said, because the alternative would be for them to drop down to a much easier class.

Hopewell said the same technique worked for him last year when a student who received a C for effort the first semester suddenly blossomed. "He began to build on the foundation that effort alone had built," he said. "By the third quarter, he had an A and was showing signs of real brilliance."

It just goes to show, Hopewell added, that "if students are motivated throughout the process of learning and graded for effort, you're more likely to see better end results."