I've been teaching high school for twelve years, and I've watched the grading pendulum swing from strict percentages to lenient pass-or-fail systems. The kids I see now are more anxious than ever, and some research suggests that removing grades reduces stress, but when I tried ungraded feedback in my own class, a third of the students stopped doing the work entirely. How do we balance the need for assessment against the psychological cost of grading, especially in a system that still relies on transcripts for college admission?