Date of Degree
2026
Degree Name
Ed.D. (Doctor of Education)
Department
Department of Leadership, Educational Psychology, and Foundations (LEPF)
Director
Tonks, Stephen
Co-Director
Summers, Kelly
Committee Members
Mitchell, Christopher
Keywords
Grading Practices, Traditional Grading, Standards-Based Grading (SBG), Ungrading, Student Perceptions, Qualitative Study, Interviews, Focus Groups, Student Achievement Levels
Abstract
This study’s purposes are to understand how students perceive grades and their impact on their motivation to learn, how students perceive different grading practices, and how students who typically experience academic success respond compared to how students who typically do not experience academic success respond. Utilizing qualitative research methods, two rounds of focus groups were conducted. The first round consisted of five focus group sessions made up of a total of nineteen students who typically experience high academic success, including an overwhelming representation of students who take honors and AP classes. The second round consisted of three focus group sessions made up of a total of sixteen students who are enrolled in the school’s credit recovery program or its “school-within-a-school” program, which are both indicators of these students experiencing struggles succeeding academically. Students in both rounds represented students enrolled at a public high school in DuPage County, Illinois, and they responded to focus group questions relevant to the study’s research questions. The researcher concludes grades play an important role in creating controlled motivation for students; students struggle to imagine a system that does not employ grades but seem to prefer such a system where they are able to imagine such a system; SBG practices are ineffective within a traditional grading system; students’ perceptions of grades are that they are often unclear and inconsistent; students want individual, specific feedback and opportunities to improve their grades through revision; grades are important to both students who typically experience academic success and those who struggle to do so; students who typically struggle to achieve academic success experience more amotivation and less controlled and autonomous motivation when it comes to grades and learning; and students in both of these subgroups report that grades are not valid indicators of their long-term retention of content and skills.
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses and dissertations are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors, unless otherwise indicated.
Recommended Citation
Tesmond, Rob III, "Grades and Grading Practices and Their Associations to Student Motivation" (2026). Dissertations of Practice. 114.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/allgraduate-disspractice/114
