How can we fix grades?

I do not have an answer for this.

There are so many layers as to why our grading systems are outdated.  For instance, higher education needs to rely on something easy to measure to weed out applicants.  Teachers feel like they need to rely on something to tell where students stand in their class.  Schools must be able to transfer grades and cumulative files that can be easily interpreted.  All of these factors lead to a fear of changing a grading system that has been in effect for decades.  So whats the answer?

We personalize it.

What does this mean?

There is a push in education to "personalize instruction."  Every student gets what they need based off of many assessment strategies.  Small group instruction is key, so if we can develop a classroom where groups of students at similar levels are instructed together, our instruction should be more effective.  So, how does grading play into this.  Teachers will argue that if a student doesn't do his/her work they should fail.  What if they prove understanding?  to me, thats the goal.  If a student can skip an assignment(s) and still prove understanding then did we need to assign it in the first place?  It is our job as educators to ensure the most effective learning environment possible is available to all students.  If we are assigning work that does need to be done, then we are not doing that.  As a class we discussed teachers that give students a NA (not attempted) for assignments.  This is a great strategy as it doesn't effect a grade,  unless a student cant prove understanding of the content.

Outside factors such as behavior, compliance, etc. should not be involved in grading a students understanding of content or a standard.

I don't think this blog post answered how we fix grades, however, it got the conversation started!