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Introduction It was the end of the school year and my teaching partner and I were sitting in our office with a student, Anthony. Two weeks earlier we made the final call to fail Anthony in our classes. He struggled all semester to keep his grades up and had not done the make-up work that we asked him to complete. This meant that he was not going to graduate from our school and was at risk of losing his place at a college he had been accepted to. Since then, Anthony had continued to come to class but was obviously dispirited. We called him into our office to check-in, to see how he was coping with not passing. It was worse than I had expected. Not only was Anthony upset about not graduating, but his perception of self-worth was non-existent. He had failed so many classes and was resigned on the fact that he was incapable of achievement. I could not have disagreed more. That year I had seen so much strength in Anthonys work and he had grown in many wayshe was creative in his designs, he collaborated well with his group membersyet, I was failing him. Did Anthony deserve that failing grade? With how I had the system set up, he had clearly not met the requirements. There were several assignments that he never completed, which meant zeros in the gradebook. He struggled with material, meaning his quizzes were nothing but Fs, dragging down his grade. I could easily use the numbers to defend my decision to fail Anthony, but I still questioned myself. I had decided before the semester had beganbefore I had ever met Anthonyhow I was going to calculate final grades. 30% of the grade was non-project related assignments, 20% was quizzes and tests, 10% was participation, leaving 40% for project work. These numbers reflected what I thought was important in the class without thinking about how the point distribution may favor one student over another. Anthony created some beautiful work in my class that year, work that demonstrated care, refinement, and an engineering mind, but what showed up in the gradebook did not demonstrate that. Had Anthonys grades ever represented his worth? How many times had Anthony received a report card filled with Cs and Ds instead of highlighting his strengths? This familiar system of letter grades, clearly outlining grade weights at the beginning of the year, had resulted in Anthony not valuing himself. No matter what he had achieved in a class, his areas of weakness dragged down his grade. Yet, these grades are almost artificial. I look back at my years of teaching and remember so many times looking at grades in the yearbook and thinking how badly they had represented the students. There were even times when I added a few extra credit points to push a student from a C to a B. These students go home though and all there is to show for their work is the letter grade. One student may get extra allowance for straight As. Another may get grounded for getting a D. These grades are also what colleges use to decide if they will admit a student, whether they should get a scholarship. For such a poor representation of a students worth, there sure are a lot of serious consequences related to GPA. I believe that the current system of letter grades is broken. Grades define the haves and have-nots and are therefore greatly valued by students. It becomes a competition. Grades are valued so much that students stress over getting As. They go from caring about doing

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well on an assignment to feel proud of their work, to doing well enough to get 90%. They judge themselves based on their grades and, in the case of Anthony, bad grades can completely destroy self-esteem. Parents judge their childs performance on the report card rather than their successes in the classroom. What if assessments in classrooms better reflected the nuances of student work? What if students were motivated by the content rather than the final grade? Through my action research I have hoped to show that it is possible to transform a classroom through how we assess our students. The change to how students view themselves and their work is why every teacher should rethink how they assess in their own classroom. In this action research I try to answer the question, what happens when I replace letter grades with assessments grounded in Core Growth Areas? How we assess our students reflects what we value as educators. I believe that teachers are doing a disservice to their students by basing the outcomes of their classes primarily on completion of assignments and understanding of concepts. Do we truly think that the decision to accept a student to college should be based on how well they can factor a binomial or how well they can memorize historical dates? Shouldnt we be pushing our students to master twenty-first century skills that are needed in the real world? By removing grades in my classroom and refocusing on broader competencies I hope to better align my assessment system with qualities that I value. I hope to better understand my students. I hope to motivate them with the work rather than the grade. Most of all, through pushing them to grow, I hope to show students their worth instead of showing them their deficits.

AbstractIntroductionReview of LiteratureLifelong Learning and the Growth MindsetMotivationHarnessing the Power of MotivationWhy Grades?Cultural Considerations

Setting DescriptionThe CityThe SchoolThe StructureThe ClassroomThe StudentsThe Teacher

MethodsData Collection ToolsData AnalysisTimeline

FindingsA Brief Introduction to My FindingsChapter 1: Defining Core Growth AreasCreating the ListStudent Voice in Defining the TermsLessons Learned

Chapter 2: Beginning of Semester ExperiencesUnderstanding my Students and Their PerspectivesInitial Reactions to Assessment System

Chapter 3: The Personal Growth Tracking FormDesign of the Personal Growth Tracking FormThe First ReflectionContinuing to Use the Form

Chapter 4: Case StudiesTyler: The case of the A student.Diego: The Case of the F Student

ConclusionsSummary of researchKey findingsTips for educatorsLimitationsNext steps

ReflectionWhat I learned about myselfWhat I learned about action researchA parting message

Works CitedAppendix A: Beginning of Year Student SurveyAppendix B: Initial Core Growth Area CreationAppendix C: Revisions of Personal Growth Tracking FormAppendix D: List of Tables and Figures