Many Students Lack Motivation to Learn. What Can We do?

America’s students are struggling. Chronic absenteeism has doubled from pre-pandemic numbers. Districts are implementing grading floors to soften the sting of failure. Grade inflation is widespread. Many students seem to have lost the motivation to learn, and traditional systems of grading and ranking aren’t helping. What’s wrong with the A-F grading system? Should school just do away with grades entirely? What interventions work to get kids back in classrooms more consistently? In this podcast episode, a high school teacher shares how she changed grading in her classroom to better engage her students and an historian explains why grades are a “can’t live with ‘em can’t live without ‘em” conundrum. We also speak with a coach who works with students that struggle with motivation because they lack executive function skills and a leading expert on chronic absenteeism explains why so many kids are missing school these days and what we can do about it. Guests: Sarah Schopfer, 11th and 12th grade English teacher, Colfax High School Jack Schneider, professor of education and director of the Center for Education Policy at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, co-author of “Off the Mark: How Grades, Ratings and Rankings Undermine Learning But Don’t Have To” Seth Perler, executive function, ADHD, and 2e coach Hedy Chang, founder and executive director of Attendance Works