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Your comment gave me an idea: what is the difference between receiving a letter-grade, as most students above elementary school receive, and the scores mostly given to lower-school students, like "exemplary, excellent, satisfactory, acceptable" etc?

I think that people often lose sight of what an 'A' means as compared to a 'B' or a 'C.'  Perhaps we should be reverting to the lower-school level way of grading, as 'exemplary' gives me a lot more information about my progress than 'A' does.  'A' seems very quantitative, as if there is a certain value given to my performance.  In inquiry-based education, we want to assess the student's PROGRESS over time, and therefore I think that words may be more effective in describing the level of progress and growth they have achieved.  'A' to me doesn't really equal 'has grown/progressed excellently/a lot.'

I'm not sure where I'm going with this, but it's certainly an idea I'll think more about.