The Purpose of Scores

We were taught that scores represented our mastery over the learning outcomes in a course. However, that notion has long since been false because teachers from K-12 often include items such as participation in students' scores.

It's almost like how much a student speaks somehow represents their mastery over the content. Ludicrous. Some of the most intelligent and knowledgeable individuals are quiet.

So what is 'participation' for?

1. Grade flexibility - It's easy for a teacher to input a score into participation to influence a student's score towards one direction or the other, especially when rubrics are fuzzy. It's not usually an accepted practice, but it's a way teachers can account for their own errors in judgment. After all, who decided that your specific test would be the one to spit out a number that would represent a student's mastery over content knowledge?
2. Behavior regulation - some classes, in order to run well, require active participation so let's make it a part of the mark so the students participate and actually learn things. Maybe you teach physical education, and the level of participation is directly relevant to students' individual progress. Because students come into a P.E. class with different levels of abilities, it does not make sense to hold all 'Grade 9' students to the same standard. In competitive sports clubs, students are split by their ability levels.

As the world continues to get closer and the internet continues to become more of a thing, though, levels of understanding in all courses can no longer be mapped to age. That worked only when information was difficult to access.

Nowadays, students can come in with pre-knowledge in any subject area that they may have been interested in, and without a doubt, their active participation in learning was what made the difference.

So maybe scores shouldn't be used as a measure of mastery over learning outcomes after all. I mean, in reality, it isn't anyways. Maybe scores should be used as a motivator for students to make progress no matter which level they are at.

Maybe students shouldn't be grouped by age, but instead should be grouped by ability levels. That being said, even if this is a good idea, it might take a few decades for the system to catch up.

Until then, you have to make the call on what the number represents. After all. universities use the number for admission decisions, though they never ask to see the course outline.