Peer Grading in K12 Education is Unnecessary and Wrong

"Ok, now trade papers with a classmate and take out your red pen."

It's a sentence everyone who has ever gone to school has heard. For as long as teachers have been saying it, a number of kids in every class have always cringed. And it's not always the kids who struggle. In fact, as a coordinator of gifted education for many years, I know the highest achieving students -- the ones who likely have "nothing to worry about" (so it's claimed) by peers seeing their work -- are often the ones who dread the practice the most. They may simply be anxious about their work, classic perfectionism. Or more likely, they're ironically embarrassed by their success and don't want to be mocked or even criticized by students who didn't do as well.

I've never really liked or approved of the practice of peer grading, as a student or a teacher, and I never practiced it in any class I taught. That puts me at odds with many, if not most, educators. And, while the legality of the issue was resolved back in 2002 by the Supreme Court after a family sued over the practice as a violation of family and student privacy, it still comes up from time to time in schools and among teachers as schools and departments debate and discuss their standards for "best practice" in the classroom. Though I've retired from teaching, I am still around schools and teachers, and I still engage int the debate, arguing that the practice is wrong.

Basically, it comes down to this -- Some kids are mean, some kids are insecure and anxious, and outside of those concerns, the practice is simply unnecessary in the learning process. Granted, the world - especially school - is an imperfect place where some people will always be mean and others will always be insecure or anxious or meek or just modest. Teachers can't solve all problems, ease all burdens, and smooth all bumpy paths. Everyone needs to learn resilience, and school plays a big role in that. However, there are some choices we can make that diminish the risk of problems, and peer grading is one of them. 

Now, many teachers over the years have countered that the practice works well as long as teachers set clear expectations, modeling the appropriate behaviors, and dealing with any violations of the protocols. But I feel that view is rather naive. Of course we want to set expectations, model good behavior, and deal with the problems. But does a teacher always know when it’s happening? When kids are inappropriate and cruel? Hardly. Any educator or parent know most bullying happens in the dark and victims rarely complain out of fear.

And what about kids who give favors to other kids who are friends? How does the teacher know? Happens all the time, as we know from being students. With that in mind, I'd argue the practice and the grades are inauthentic at best.

So, regardless of whether a teacher could effectively manage it all the time, the practice is quite simply unnecessary and lazy. If it’s just homework or daily practice, then kids can grade themselves. They know if they’re being honest. And if it’s a true assessment then kids have no business seeing another kid's grade anyway.