Senate considers pluses and minuses
of grading changes

By Sarah R. Buchholz, Chronicle staff

embers of the Faculty Senate discussed a possible change in the campus's grading system at the senate's Nov. 29 meeting. In an annual report presented to the senate, the Academic Matters Council reported that it has been considering moving from the current system, which designates grades that fall between the letters A through D with midpoints AB, BC, and CD, to a more widely used system of pluses and minuses (e.g., A-, B+, B-, C+).

     "We are one of the few campuses in the nation that is still doing that system," said associate professor of Nutrition Mokhtar Atallah, who chaired the council during FY 01. "It has some effect on students applying to graduate schools, especially professional schools. The AB to them is somehow confusing when trying to compare it with an A-." Atallah said that the other schools in the Five College system do not use the current University system.

     The system would weight the "minus" grades at .25 points less than their core letter and "plus" grades at .25 points more than their core letter (e.g. a C is worth 2 points, so a C+ is worth 2.25 points). Under the current system, the only grade between C and B is a BC, which is worth 2.5 points. Both the current and proposed systems operate on a 4-point scale.

     "There were less than 10 schools that we could find on the Web that have that A, AB system in the country," he said. "So we are looking at that and we are trying to find a way in terms of how we are going to ease into it because it's the mechanics of it that's going to be more difficult to establish."

     Several senators asked about other possibilities.

     "If we're going to make progress, why don't we make progress?" said Psychology professor Richard Bogartz. "It seems to me that you can provide the very scale that you just mentioned and then allow people to assign a number, rather than a letter. And then if people want to interpret that as a letter, they could round to the nearest grade point but the number would be more precise. When someone assigns a particular grade to a particular course, it's artificially tilted into these breakpoint numbers."

     "It is not only letters for numbers," Atallah said. "Actually when we put the grade down for the student, we are thinking in both those terms when we are doing that.

     "It's a matter of being consistent with the other institutions and having people outside judging our students the same way they are comfortable with. And not giving our students the disadvantage of trying to explain what does that mean compared to the other institutions."

     Marta Calas, associate professor of Management, said she understood the reason for a move toward standardization but asked whether the council had discussed grading options that include an individual written evaluation, in addition to assigning a number or letter to student work.

     Atallah said it wasn't practical for faculty who teach large courses to provide written evaluations but said his own department records student's individuality through writing letters of recommendation.

     Two senate councils, Academic Matters and the Graduate Council are continuing to evaluate the possible change.

     "If you have any comments, please contact the Academic Matters Council or the Faculty Senate office because that issue is important for everyone," Atallah said.