“F**k grades. No, really.” This is what students read in the syllabus of “Gaming in the Ancient World” taught by classics professor T.H.M. Gellar-Goad.

A committee of Wake Forest faculty gathered last Tuesday with students to discuss the grading process and academic pressures around GPA at Wake Forest. The Faculty Learning Community (FLC), called “Rethinking Grading at Wake Forest,” was founded by Gellar-Goad and is composed of 12 faculty members of all units, disciplines and rankings.

The committee will study the impact of grades on students and faculty throughout the semester and hold meetings every three weeks that explore the benefits and drawbacks of traditional grading, like the motivation versus stress that grades bring. Through considering the perspectives of students and faculty, FLC is working towards a white paper and website to express their concerns, as well as productive critical conversations about grades on campus.

Referred to by members of the FLC as their “fearless leader,” Gellar-Goad is known on campus for his unique grading process called “ungrading.” Ungrading encourages self-reflection by minimizing the use of points or letter grades in the course. By denying traditional conventions of grading, students are emboldened to take responsibility for their learning and collaborate with their professors on their final grades.

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Wake Forest junior Grace Bauer has taken several classes that utilize the ungrading system, including two with Gellar-Goad.

“It alleviates so much of the crushing pressure on students that we have come to accept as not only normal but unavoidable in college,” Bauer said. “The grades are genuine. I earn what I deserve; I am never surprised by the outcome, and without the stress, I digest the content better than ever.”

Are grades good for students?

Some students see grades as a means of motivation. Especially in divisional classes that are seen as mere requirements for students to fulfill, some feel little incentive to learn the content on their own.

“If you don’t have a grade, then what are you working towards?” freshman Emily Gregg asked.

Proponents of the traditional grading system also argue that students are incentivized to participate and excel in class to receive positive quantitative feedback throughout and at the end of the semester. 

However, the stress often consumes students and doesn’t inherently ensure success.

“At the basic level, the presence of grades generates a reward structure that removes the intrinsic motivation,” Gellar-Goad shared at the forum. “The system creates perverse incentives because you only do the work that you are graded for, rather than work that is meaningful to you.”

Gellar-Goad reflects this in his syllabus, stating, “I care about your learning and your effort, not grades. If you have come here to earn a grade, then you are wasting your time. But if you have come here because your learning is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”

The pressure of grades, tests and GPAs can also consume students to the point where their work and the professor-student relationships are compromised.

“I do feel like that result that’s going to generate a specific outcome does divide me and my students from having a fruitful experience together,” Professor Kyle Deniger shared at the forum. “The whole relationship between the faculty member and the student feels like it’s based on who has the power. When I teach, often it’s hard to feel like those relationships are authentic.”

Many of the FLC members claim that grades anger both students and teachers since they do not allow students to make mistakes and force faculty to emotionally coddle their students rather than teach them. For this reason, members of the FLC employ alternative grading systems similar to ungrading, that permit students and professors to prioritize learning in the classroom.

“This [ungrading] system is based on mutual respect,” Bauer said. “There is no grading system in which I feel more like a respected, adult member of an advanced university.”

While the committee is critiquing the current grading system, the goal of the FLC isn’t necessarily to eliminate grades. FLC member and professor in theater and dance, Kevin Frazier, expresses that their goals in the classroom simply aren’t centered around grades.

“I want you to see the world with even half the wonder I accidentally see it with,” Frazier said in reference to their students. “And if a numerical grade is a byproduct of that, it doesn’t matter much to me.”