The Troubled History of Grades and Grading: A Historical Comparison of Germany and the United States

Abstract

This article takes a closer look at the coming-into-being of grades and grading as these two can be considered a part of Tyack and Tobin’s “grammar of schooling”. As such, the history of these powerful tools will be explored in two cultural spheres, Germany and the USA. Even though the worked-on entity is pluralistic and messy in nature, this article will show that the educational planners’ motivations have been similar in both cases and—regarding the hexamerous grading scheme—that a connection between Germany and the USA exists. In a second step, these findings will be theorized from a neo-institutionalist’s perspective. The article ends with a reflection on every-day teaching practice regarding grades and grading.

Keywords

• grammar of schooling
• grades
• history of education
• neo-institutionalism
• systemic goals