[tseabrooks]

Why would the grades need to be meaningful to colleges or employers? You now have a portfolio of the project(s)... and then possibly some subjective paragraph or two of the teachers thoughts on the issue... and then the employer or college can judge the project themselves.

This reminds me of the college in Yellow Springs, Ohio (Antioch College) where there are no letter grades.. just pass / fail with a teachers write up of your performance to go into your 'portfolio'.. Though I think they closed shop recently because of a lack of funding.

[evgen]

The grades need to havebsome basic normalization because college admittance personell probably do not have the time to review several thousand projects during college application season to determine whether or not they actually demonstrate competence in the skills involved or if they were actually demonstrating the skills of the student and not the "projects that will get you into harvard" crib sheet the student was using. Grades and test scores have various drawbacks, but they are a relatively inexpensive normalization and filting mechanism compared to something like this; at the upper end of the spectrum you are doing projects in addition to grades/tests but the latter filters the project work that has to be considered to a manageable amount.

[robryan]

So maybe they should make the time, I don't see how an education system that pushes students in undesirable directions to make things easier on administration is a good one.