OPINION: P.E. classes should be graded on effort, not athletic ability
While running in his P.E. class in Florida last year, a young seventh grade boy, Nick Senske, halted in the middle of his tracks as asthma kicked in and he struggled to breathe, according to an article in jacksonville.com. Later, Senske, formerly an all-A student, found that he had received a 60 percent on the running assessment and was likely to receive a B in the class despite his usual 100 percent effort.
Like Senske, some students at SCHS give their full effort in physical education classes but perform poorly on skills assessments. It is not their choice to be unathletic; they were just born this way. Therefore, the grading standards for physical education should be replaced with ones based on effort, participation, and improvement of each individual.
According to the SCHS physical education department’s policies, participation, sportsmanship, attitude and behavior take up about 50 percent of a person’s grade. The other 50 percent is based on the skills, knowledge, and the approximately 2-mile Bruin Run.
The flaw with this system is that if a student consistently tries hard but is exceptionally unathletic, he or she could still flunk.
As a general evaluation, the current standards can be very unfair. For instance, SCHS students taking P.E. Core 9 are required to jump a certain distance in order to pass the long jump standards. The problem with this is that a student who is 5 feet tall has to jump the same distance as someone who is 6 feet tall in order to get the same grade. Obviously, the taller student has the advantage.
Each student has different limits, and no one knows what those specific limits are better than the students themselves. Therefore, instead of being graded based on how well they do compared to others, students should be graded solely on participation, sportsmanship, attitude, behavior, improvement, and effort. Although these qualities already account for 50 percent of P.E. grades, this percentage isn’t enough.
Some people might argue that there is not an accurate way of measuring qualities such as participation, but that simply is not the case, especially if students were trusted more.
At the beginning of each quarter, students should have a pretest on the topic the class is going over that quarter. After they analyze their pretest scores, they should be able to set their own goals based on these scores. As the class progresses, the students would try to beat their initial scores and surpass their goals. If they improve significantly and achieve their goals, they definitely deserve a good grade.
In addition, self-evaluations can be used to determine how much effort is put in by the students. After all, they are already in high school so if they are expected to act like adults, shouldn’t they be treated as such?
Unjust physical education grading systems should not be the reason why hard-working students like Senske have their grades lowered. Grading systems for P.E. should be based on effort and improvement instead of athleticism.
Robby austin • Oct 30, 2022 at 2:13 pm
I strongly agree. Some people are born differently and just because your shorter or not as athletic doesn’t mean you should get a bad grade. If students try hard, they should be able to succeed. Grading them on ability teaches them that there just bad at PE and can’t jump long enough or run to slow. Grading on effort also makes PE for everyone and not just the bigger or stronger kids.
Albert Nall • Mar 24, 2021 at 11:22 am
Thank you for this article Ms. Lui. I grew up in a physical education structure where I got the lowest scores on physical education tests (push-up; pull-ups; sit-ups and track events) in grade school because I was the smallest male in my classes. In fact, my scores was lower than it was for the girls. So yes, a smaller male student should not have to compete against physically stronger male students who have better opportunities in organized sports; something that the person whose views you are reading did not have.
As an adult, I believe that the stigma of physical education carries over into the business world. I do not think that it is fair to me that golf is the standard for business with this economically disenfranchised male who has never played a hole of golf and his life and does not interact with business executives. What if I am a blue collar worker who bowls instead? I believe that the business world pits those of us who are not gifted with social privileges’ against those who enjoy privileges’ that many of us cannot compete against. This is the world that many of the students reading this will be entering into upon graduation.
Here’s a thought; I think that the physical education structure should be better tailored to sports where girls and boys can participate equally during your time as students and upon entering into the adult world. Also, I am sure that there are physical activities such as yoga and dancing where the students do not have to compete against one another. I would propose students in PE being required to write on sports and health related themes. This would be a beginning for the grade related reforms (much of that is projected by this article) that are needed to give all student fair access in PE.
I realize that participation in sports does have a bearing on college scholarships and even future employment prospects for those who can include athletic activities on their resumes. Still, and as a final word on this Title IX needs to be held to a standard of increasing access to athletic and physical fitness opportunities for all students, not just those in sports that are traditionally run by programs that make money and advance one class against another, Thank you for allowing me to post to your site as a guest and a community stakeholder.
Claire • Jan 31, 2021 at 8:12 pm
People saying how PE can negatively affect your grade, dude it can also positively affect ur grade. Plus PE is about participation and whether u wear your PE cloth or not. Its not about how athletics u are
Henry • Dec 3, 2022 at 2:59 pm
Certain schools do have their grades based on athletic performance. I’m a freshman in High School and my PE grade is a D+. Now while it may not help that the grading system in my school is crazy, with a 75 being a D, it doesn’t help that while I try my hardest I cannot physically run a mile in the 6:50 time that is required for an A. It isn’t fair that athletic kids can strive in a class while non-athletic kids fail. Some people may argue that kids who are not the smartest also fail in classes while smarter kids succeed, but you can study for a test and do well, I can’t just study for a physical test and do well. It takes time, and no matter how hard I try I can’t do better than I am, which is currently D level skills.
Sue • Mar 30, 2019 at 2:53 am
Let’s not confuse athleticism with fitness. A student may be a phenomenal basketball player but not be able to hit a tennis ball so grading on skills is not appropriate. Fitness is another story. You don’t have to be an athlete to do 7 push-ups (that’s what CT requires for girls to fall in the health zone on the fitness test) or run a mile in less than 10 minutes. These are areas that are easily improved with work and effort. I’d love to be able to afford heart rate monitors so I could easily grade on effort but that’s definitely not in the budget. I do think there is nothing wrong with grading student (not daily but maybe once a quarter) on their fitness performance and effort can certainly be one component of the rubric. I’ve seen kids definitely try harder when it’s tied to a grade. I had one student a few years ago who could do ONE standard push-up. She couldn’t even do a modified (on her knees) or bleacher push-ups. I gave her some strategies and she worked all semester on her own ( as well as what we did in class) and was able to do 10 standard push-ups to the cadence by the end of the semester. I was so proud of her and she was proud of herself also.
Bella Lin • Mar 15, 2019 at 8:52 am
One main reason that shows that P.E. should not be graded because of how ones physical ability could negatively affect an academic grade. Here is what grading P.E. means: your GPA and your chance to go to a good college and become an even more successful adult’s chances could all be lowered because of the way you hit a volleyball. Or how fast you run a mile. Or, simply because the gym teacher favors you. A mother by the name of Karen Cicero recently found out that her daughters outstanding mark in P.E. was not because of her actual physical ability, it was because she was a favored student. As Karen says, “Would I want a child who comes prepared for math class, does all her homework, and eagerly participates to receive an “A” even if she got a third of the questions on her tests wrong? No way!” (Karen Cicero, ‘How Should Gym Class Be Graded?’ No publishing date included.) This would be unfair the percentage of students who consistently tries hard but isn’t a favorite student. It will lower their grade, and as I will talk about it later, a bad grade in P.E. does not motivate students but actually demotivates them. Another example is from the news site of Santa Clara High School, which says: “According to the SCHS physical education department’s policies, participation, sportsmanship, attitude and behavior take up about 50 percent of a person’s grade. The other 50 percent is based on the skills, knowledge, and the approximately 2-mile Bruin Run.
The flaw with this system is that if a student consistently tries hard but is exceptionally unathletic, he or she could still flunk.” This shows that a child/teenager that consistently tries hard but just isn’t physically fit would still flunk his/her gym class. Each student has physical and emotional limits that at some point, can’t be pushed anymore. To make them down for not being able to run a ‘standard mile time’ that ‘should be easy for everyone’ is cruel. Students also have their own physical advantages. If you do a long jump unit, all the taller students have to jump the same length as the shorter ones. If you do a sport, thestudnets in that class who play it outside of school have the advantage as well. P.E. grades do count towards your final GPA, and not being able to hit a volleyball right or know how to hit a golf ball would greatly lower your chances of getting into a good college.
Julianna Bavolek • Mar 14, 2019 at 6:56 pm
I agree octillion percent% students should absolutely be graded on effort only
Jessica • Mar 6, 2018 at 4:18 pm
I agree one octillion percent :3
john • Nov 14, 2017 at 8:26 am
I fully agree with this article