Traditional Education

Marking

Topic	Traditional approach	Alternate approaches
Communicating with parents	A few numbers, letters, or words are used to summarize overall achievement in each class. Marks may be assigned according to objective individual performance (usually the number of correct answers) or compared to other students (best students get the best grades, worst students get poor grades). A passing grade may or may not signify mastery: a failing student may know the material but not complete homework assignments, and a passing student may turn in all homework but still not understand the material.	Many possible forms of communicating achievements: Teachers may be required to write personalized narrative evaluations about student achievement and abilities. Under standards-based education, a government agency may require all students to pass a test; students who fail to perform adequately on the test may not be promoted.
Expectations	Students will graduate with different grades. Some students will fail due to poor performance based on a lack of understanding or incomplete assignments.	All students need to achieve a basic level of education, even if this means spending extra years in school.
Grade inflation/deflation	Achievement based on performance compared to a reasonably stable, probably informal standard which is highly similar to what previous students experienced.	The value of any given mark is often hard to standardize in alternative grading schemes. Comparison of students in different classes may be difficult or impossible.