Inquiry on the accuracy of grades on representing acquired knowledge

Grading is foundational to our current educational system; grades are used to provide feedback to students about their understanding of the subject and to provide guidance and motivation for further studying. Grades are also used by education administrators to rank students according to their achievements and allow admission or retention to an institute or a class or program of the institute. However, this amount of dependency on grades is concerning given that there are not a lot of evidence on the accuracy and reliability of this quantitative representation of acquired knowledge. This research aspires to explore this evidential gap and find the real correlation between grades and knowledge. Initially the research plans to conduct an online questionnaire directed to Kennesaw State University students who have taken at least junior level computing classes. Specifically, the questionnaire inquires students about their major, the motivation behind choosing the major, the expectations and outcomes of the classes they have taken, how much they have mastered the learning outcomes and how much the learning outcomes helped them prepare in the subsequent higher level classes. Next, the research plans to organize a focus study group where the quantitative data gathered from the questionnaire will be used to build a qualitative grounded model on how the students feel about the accuracy of the grades they receive at the end of a class. In the end, this research aims to reflect on the efficiency of our current grading system and proposes a newer alternative where the classes will be designed to revolve around real-world objectives and students will be graded on their mastery of these objectives. Since these objectives are universally applicable, students, educators, and even employers can confidently rely on the objective grades. However, further research will confirm whether such alternative is feasible