Exit Slip, are marks accurate?

I do not believe marks are accurate, but I think they could be. Marks are associated with only the success but does not gauge a students work ethic, passion, mentality, ability, or the willingness for that student to try again. So I believe the idea is what should grades indicate as a measure and can this measure affect the performance of the students once it is observed.

Currently, grades are interpreted for academic performance, but nothing else. If two students were to both score 90%, there is no way someone that were to look at this grade would be able to tell the two students apart. It cannot describe whether the student was challenged by the course content, or worked really hard to improve their performance through the year. Personal struggles are not included, socioeconomic struggles cant be measured, and personality traits that society values such as being a great leader or team player does not scale with academic performance either. So in essence, grades are not accurate because they are not really relevant to what society values. A written unit test that is worth 8% of a students overall grade cannot measure improvements.

I think a teacher that helps a student that accidentally reveals that they have not done the work may leave the impression that the student is lazy which may create a bias. Any kinds of biases teachers have affect their academic performance which is partially why I do not believe marks can be accurate.

What I would like to do for the Inquiry project is to study is what could grade indicate as a measure and if this could be effective. If the anxiety and stress to strive for better grades can affect their performance (in negative and positive ways) what can teachers do to ease and change the meaning of grades so students could see it as a form of progression, instead of something that is permanently lost.