Is It Positive or Negative?

Report Cards Shouldn’t Include a Plus or Minus

Photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash

In schools across the United States, there's a system of awarding students pluses or minuses on their grades. This indicates a higher or lower performance within their base grade level of an A, B, C, etc. At Maclay School, we follow this system, unlike other schools in the area, including Lawton Chiles High School and James S. Rickards High School, which have standard letter grading with no pluses or minuses. Though pluses and minuses can indicate higher quality, they have little impact and create more negatives, making it unnecessary for report cards to include them.

Pluses and minuses unnecessarily increase pressure, negatively impacting the mental health of students. Students who put in effort and don’t see a plus when looking at their grades can feel inferior and experience an increased pressure to be perfect. That attitude of perfectionism may foster a negative mentality and cause their mental health to decline. Imagine a student who works hard all semester and gets an A but is only a few hundredths away from an A+. They performed closer to the level of an A+, but because of a small difference, their hard work was disregarded. This can make them feel that they aren’t good enough, and as a result, they might overwork themselves, focusing solely on academics while neglecting their state of mind. As the person’s anxiety and stress build up, they can burn out, which leads to less productivity as they may quit activities and even slip academically. By keeping a system with standard letter grades, this problem is avoidable. Small differences won’t matter, with an A being the default, meaning people won’t feel lesser, and it’ll reflect their hard work.

Pluses and minuses can indicate lower performance because of reasons outside of the student’s work. Outside factors such as subjective bias and unique scaling play into grading practices. A teacher can use their own method of scaling that may not reflect a student’s work objectively, leading to cases of students having a minus on their grade when they deserve more. If a teacher prefers to award As rather than A+s for completion, they can lower the student’s overall grade. If they don’t believe in giving A+s on assessments because nothing is perfect, even though the student put in the work for an A+, it won’t be reflected. This bias makes the benefits of a plus-minus system ineffective. By keeping the standard letter grade, this subjectivity can be minimized, keeping an accurate analysis of the student’s work.

The addition of pluses and minuses doesn’t impact admissions or school rankings. When colleges calculate GPAs, they look at the transcript and consider a plus or minus an A in their calculation, rendering the extra symbols inefficient. Most colleges will calculate all As as a 4.0, so there’s no benefit, and  students go through extra stress to get grades for no return. For the schools with this system, as a business, adding pluses and minuses does not increase the incentive for people to attend schools. Trinity High School, a top K-12 school in the U.S., does not use a plus-minus grading system yet it’s ranked nationally. The plus-minus grading system doesn’t have meaningful benefits and increases stress with minimal reward, becoming an unneeded burden for students.

Some argue adding a plus or minus can be a way to increase students’ motivation, claiming it drives students to work harder to earn a higher grade or get the highest one possible, fostering positive competitiveness. While that may be true for some, this view ignores the negative psychological effects that can foster a pessimistic attitude and decrease motivation, resulting in the opposite of what’s intended. People may stop focusing on learning and growing, adopting a declining mindset. By removing the plus-minus system, the potential for a pessimistic attitude is eliminated and students can focus on excelling rather than stressing.

Pluses and minuses allow grades to look better, which, when positive, can be more fulfilling. However, in most instances, their effects can cause more harm than good, with the difference being minimal. By removing pluses and minuses from report cards, schools can eliminate an expendable system and, in turn, see better results.