From the Principal  

Can Good Grades Lead to Failure at School?

Welcome to Week 4 of Term 3. School reports, mid-Year assessments and Parent-Teacher interviews have taken place and the school is ‘knuckling down’ into Semester 2, hoping for positive learning and a strong sense of purpose. The Trial HSC is underway for Year 12, with just this term left for our most Senior students.

Whilst my heading is a bit ‘tongue in cheek’ I occasionally encounter articles provocatively making such outrageous claims. It seems ridiculous to suggest that good grades are unhelpful. For some students though, school becomes about the grade, rather than the learning and approach that leads to achievement. As adults it is helpful to question how we might measure the gains, growth and progress experienced in the second half of a school year? Is it simply by comparing effort ratings and work habits from Term 2? Are higher grades the only indicator of increased learning? What actually do the grades measure? 

With the plethora of information and the myriad of assessment tasks, how is one to know? Whilst it might seem preposterous that good grades are not the full picture, some educators question over-reliance on marks and data, alternatively suggesting that there are other important student qualities, not necessarily measured in reports but which are just as critical for success as students move towards adulthood. These qualities include: 

• Open-Mindedness
• Effort
• Social & Emotional Intelligence
• Critical thinking
• Initiative
• Sense of Aesthetics
• Creativity
• Collaboration
• Curiosity
• Respect
• Kindness
• Capacity to love
• Honesty
• Compassion

If items from this list were to appear on the school report, how might you grade your children? American psychologist Marilyn Price Mitchell, (1) asserts that internal strengths, such as those on this list, are as important contributors to a future life of success and well-being as whether a child earns an “A” in a school report. She claims, “By the time children reach late adolescence, their brains have the capacity to think about interrelationships, explore the boundaries between fields of study, and to create new ways of learning.” 

These critical abilities, fostered throughout childhood, will set them up for a life of learning and achievement.  At Calrossy we have introduced checkpoints for students in secondary school to provide continuous feedback to assist in learning as they go. The aim is to assist students to improve and shift from the idea that learning is not just a product, but a process.

For today’s learners in an information rich world, correct answers are not enough. An implication of this is that in addition to good teaching and learning, schools must promote and emphasise character development, allowing students to develop these skills, in addition to core academic ones. 

Whilst academic growth and grades remain important at Calrossy, Mitchell has provided food for thought and encouragement for students of all levels of achievement (and their parents) She reminds us that good grades don’t measure internal strengths. Character is a vital aspect of growth and it will usually contribute to improvement and adult success. Development of the skills in the list above will assist in academic growth but also guarantee much more (including in some things that can’t be measured) – opportunity to succeed into adulthood and make a positive contribution to society and God’s world. 

It is right at Calrossy that character development and academic achievement stand alongside each other as high priorities. Whilst we will always commend students on excellent report grades, it is also vital to focus on progress and the moral, social and spiritual development of our children and emerging young adults, reminding them that character is an important aspect of how they will emerge into adulthood. One of the most satisfying things for me, often seen at Calrossy, is the development of a student whose early school reports indicated they were an average student, who emerges as a high achiever and fabulous young adult by the end of the school journey. It isn’t the high report grades that enables such growth but the character development that occured on the way.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. Philippians 4: 8 

1. Roots of Action: Good Grades May Harm Student Health, Marilyn Price Mitchell, 2020.

David Smith

Principal