Published
in AMS Quarterly, vol. 4 (June 2000), p. 7.
Original
manuscript; copyright retained by the author [other
essays]
EVALUATING
THE POINT OF GRADES
by
Herbert Jack Rotfeld
Auburn University Professor Emeritus
Auburn University, Alabama, U.S.A.
Rotfehj@auburn.edu
Minutes of Board of Trustees meeting
(excerpt), Whatsamatter University of Ubiquity,
To guide discussion on grading
practices, the
Vice President for Academic Affairs distributed a brief report showing
the percentages of A, B and C grades awarded by student level (freshman
through senior), college and department, plus the overall Grade Point
Averages
(GPA) for the university and how these have changed over the past
thirty
years. To summarize, the Vice President pointed out that the mean has
improved by an impressive amount over the decades. In 1970, the average
grade was a bit over a C (2.20 GPA) and today
it is a B plus (GPA 3.6). More than half of all grades in the past two
academic years were
A. . . .
The Board was pleased with the
report and its
findings, since it indicated that Whatsamatter U now enrolls more capable
students. Everyone agreed that good grades help our graduates to
compete on the
job market, with subsequent discussion on ways the Board could direct
the
restructuring of more courses to ensure that the average
student would be more able to get these top grades. . . . .
To: Academic
Standards Committee
From: Knott
Dee Manding, Committee chair
The Whatsamatter U
president has forwarded to me a lengthy letter that he recently
received
from a new faculty member, Dr. Ohsuch Fun, that I am sending it to you
for our review. In her strongly worded request for a change in our
grading
system, Professor Fun expressed dismay about our current systems' lack
of
recognition for plus and minus grades, lamenting that it does not allow
her to distinguish between degrees of B-level performance in her
classes.
The president, in turn, has referred her concerns to us for discussion
and possible action.
I have taken
the liberty of conducting an informal poll of some faculty and graduate
students around campus as to their opinions and views on plus minus
grades,
and some of their comments are appended to this note. Many faculty
agree
that they would like to have a system that records
differing levels of A or B grades. The students seem to be wildly in
favor
of such a change, saying it would tend to increase their GPA. As one
student
wrote, "With the pressure on grades increasing and students needing
higher
grades for admission to graduate and professional programs, this would
be a big help." However, responses were not totally supportive. Some
students
did not like the idea of "minus" grades since it would denigrate the
grades in a way that could add an unfortunate stigmata to their
accomplishment of an A or
B.
Overall, the
only strong opposition seems to be from some of the Engineering faculty
and a few crusty elders in the School of Accountancy and Department of
Marketing. Comparing
their responses to our recent study of grade distributions, they are the
faculty
who still give a large number of C, D and F grades. Since these faculty
have not enjoyed the increasing quality of students that would enable
them
to give more top grades term, they see no need to distinguish between
the
varying degrees of B.
[Side-note:
No one seems concerned about distinguishing between differing degrees
of
C or D performance!]
We will meet
to discuss this next Wednesday at 3 p.m. in the Dean's conference room,
the one on the top floor with the plush leather chairs, 25 foot long
meeting table and area set aside for golf putting practice.
From: Eilene Ukiss, Chair, Board of
Trustees Committee
on Academic Standards and Football
RE: Recommended new grade guidelines
Following the approval of the
University Senate
and Recommendations from the President, we voted to recommend adoptions
of changes in the grade standards as follows: A+, A, B+, B, C+, C and
N.
We eliminated the proposal for
minus grades in
that they would make a negative comment on the otherwise positive
performances
of out students that might hurt them as they apply for graduate
programs
or jobs. Similarly, D and F are also eliminated as unduly stigmatizing
for the hard-working students. In their place will be the grade of N,
for
"No Credit," to be used in those rare instances in which a student was
unable to attend enough classes to receive a passing grade.
We also recommend that the
president be directed
to report back in one year on an investigation of all faculty who give
many C or N grades. These people harm the reputation of our university.
From: Uwork Fourmee, Office of
Personnel
and Recruitment
RE: Evaluating grades of college
graduates
In the past, we used students' grades as a
discriminating tool to screen applicants to join us as new employees.
However, that formerly straight-forward information
has been garbled and confusing of late as every applicant
claims a
GPA
over 3.8. We have looked at transcripts, but no one shows a grade lower
than C, except for a rare N (whatever that means). Everyone has plus
grades,
but I have never seen an A minus or B minus. Our screening formula
that includes GPA has started to use numbers
going to seven or eight decimal places.
In search of a solution, I
contacted
a faculty member where I got my M.B.A. degree and asked how they handle
this with their applicants. He told me they recently adopted a system
that
she said is now in use by most graduate programs. Their approach does seem
to greatly
simplify
matters. We just need to recognize that grades mean something different
than when I went to school, so we,
too,
will adopt this system.
To do this, we will now look at
all
transcripts and calculate our own GPA: A+ will be worth 4 points, A or
the rare A- will be 3 points, B+ will 2 points, B or lower will be
worth
a point and N will be zero, though the course credits will be used for
GPA calculations.
I don't know about you, but I am
tired of graduates saying they had top grades but they can't write a
simple
sentence and are unable to answer a question unless they are first told
the options and given a friend to call. Maybe this will return some
sanity
to the system.