Formal education systems have existed for thousands of years — from the earliest Chinese Xia Dynasty school education began in 2070 B.C. to the robust, philosophy-based education system used by the ancient Greeks in 500 B.C. Since it feels like the dawn of time, the scoring system used to determine mastery of a topic is a relatively new concept.
Not so long ago, schools weren't even able to assess what students had mastered or achieved in school. Earlier versions of the education system relied on many different markers to determine whether a student had successfully completed their studies. And, in many cases, scoring systems or pass or fail flags are not used at all. Students simply learn and move on – provided they have enough privileges to get a formal school education first.
This is very different from the system used today. Most schools now use a alphabetic grading system from A to F to rate students' subject mastery, or use a number, such as a 4.0 scale. These grades indicate not only whether students pass or fail, but also how well they master the subject. Students have learned to judge themselves and others based on their ability to grasp concepts based on these systems. Getting a good score in a class or exam means they've achieved something special — something to be proud of.
But how did the education system move from no grading system to the official alphabet scoring system used today? Using Internet resources on the history of education, we compiled a list of 10 milestones that occurred in the alphabetical grading system that led to education in the world today. These milestones began with the earliest assessments and evolved into a alphabetic scoring system as complex and diverse as the education system.
Here's what you should know about the history of the alphabet grading system.
Archaeologists have found evidence that there was a formal and informal education system in ancient Greece. Students in formal education are obtained through the public school system or mentors, which are predominantly male and non-slavery. However, while ancient Greek societies had a publicly accessible education system, there were no alphabetic or numeric grades for completing student assessments. Assessment is used only for formative learning, not for assessment. This means that student assessments don't exist — nor does any way to track whether students have a grasp of the topic at hand or need more education and training.
Ancient Greece may not have required formal exams to evaluate students, but in the United States in the mid-1600s, Harvard did. Harvard, long considered one of the most innovative and legendary systems of higher education, began requiring students to take their final exams as early as 1646. These graduation exams are required for students to obtain a college degree, but there is no formal letter or quantity requirement at the time. Over time, formal graduation exam requirements have helped pave the way for a more formal grading system — both at Harvard and within other education systems.
Yale was one of the first schools to attempt a formal evaluation system for students — it began with president Ezra Stiles. As early as 1785, Stiles' diary contained evidence that the president tried to evaluate students who took exams at the university. Stiles uses four different Latin grades: "optimi," "second optimi," "inferiores," and "pejores"; or quality, best, worst, and worst. These grades or grades are used to divide students into different grades or mastery categories — just like the alphabetic and numeric grades used today.
Just a few years later, Yale began implementing a scoring system similar to what is used today. Building on Ezra Stiles' early attempts to assess students, Yale began tracking student information in what it calls the Book of Averages. This book is used to record exam rules and guidelines as well as students' exam scores. What makes this book special is that it is also used for average grades per student — or grades — which is exactly what schools and higher education institutions do today. What's even more interesting is that it's at least partially done on the 4-point scale, which is still in use by most colleges and universities. That said, there is still no evidence of a letter grading system, but this 4.0 rating developed rapidly over the next few decades.
Yale's early grading standards paved the way for other colleges and universities to begin experimenting with other ways to evaluate students. While some of these scales were used to divide students into larger categories or categories—Harvard, for example, used such a system in the late 1800s—other colleges and universities used specific systems to assess students' individual circumstances. A more notable system emerged at the University of Michigan, which began implementing a system of individual student assessments that passed or failed in 1895. The system uses five different scores or scores to assess students: pass, unfinished, failed, conditional, or absent. Similar systems are still in use today, although it is more common for schools to implement formal alphanumeric grading systems to assess the performance of individual students.
Although the school began implementing a formal student assessment system before 1897, this year the first real-world example of the alphabetic grading system appeared at Holyoke Hill College in Massachusetts. However, unlike the current alphabet grading system, the Holyoke Mountain Scale is an A-E system with no letter F rating. There are other differences in this alphabet scale. At Mount Holyoke, A is rated on a 5-point scale, representing a scale of 95 to 100, while grades B and C are scored on a 10-point scale. The letter grade of D is awarded to students who have only scored 75 points — no higher than or below 75 points — and any student below 75 is awarded an E, which is a failing grade.
The A-E letter scale did not last long. A year after implementation, administrators at Mount Holyoke added the letter F to the scale —F stands for failure. Other letters have also been revised at this point to increase the symmetry of the grading scale. In this new version of the alphabet scoring system, each letter rating represents a five-point scale. The letters A represent 95 to 100, the letter B represents 90 to 94, the letter C represents 85 to 89, the letter D represents 80 to 84, and the letter E represents a score of 75 to 79. Any score below 75 is awarded the letter grade of F, which is a failing grade.
It wasn't long before the alphabetic and numerical grading system was adopted by more parts of the U.S. education system — but not in full use of the standardized version. By the beginning of the 20th century, most public schools had a formal grading system that was essential for individual students due to significant changes in the system itself. During this period, a number of laws were passed requiring students to attend school – meaning more students were in school at this time – and immigration increased the number of students attending school. As a result, schools must develop formal methods for tracking student records and student assessments, leading to the implementation of standardized grading systems – number and letter grades – to make it easier to rate students against a rigorous set of standards.
There is no clear date regarding when the letter E was first removed from the alphabet. That is, by 1930, most colleges had stopped using the letter to grade students. According to numerous sources, colleges no longer use E as part of the scale because of concerns that students think the alphabet grade represents excellence. Despite F's failure or failure, the letter was deleted — and has been so ever since.
Just 10 years after colleges and universities stopped using the letter E as a grade, grading systems have become widely adopted across the country. By the 1940s, the alphabet scale was the most commonly used scoring system. The system is used in conjunction with the 4.0 scale and the numerical scoring system (grades from 0 to 100) and has been implemented in the public systems of elementary, middle and high schools, as well as in colleges and universities. Over time, the system will continue to be revised and will eventually be more integrated with the digital grading scale. The alphabetic grading system is still in use today – although it has many forms and variations, including curve grading and cohort grading, depending on the school system.