Is the New Grading Policy Effective?
Universities are constantly challenging students to achieve higher academic standards by continuously changing the way it evaluates students. In turn, students constantly stress themselves out over their grade point average. At the University of Georgia, a decision was made by the administration to change to a GPA grading scale that includes letter grades with a plus or minus. Since its implementation, the student body at UGA has become more concerned with its grades. Fearing that their transcripts will be critically altered, not all student are sure if they should accept the new grading policy. The new grading scale will be used when applying to graduate programs; the grades that a student earns from this point on will be calculated within the new plus/minus scale (previous grades will be graded within the prior system). Is the new grading system the most effective? Does it give the University of Georgia a more academically competitive environment?
What does the addition of the plus/minus grading scale mean? With this new grading policy, a 90 that a student earns in a class will not be a 4.0; it is a 3.7. To earn a 4.0, the student would need to earn at least a 94. The rest of the grading scale looks like this:A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, B- = 2.7, C+ = 2.3, C = 2.0, C- = 1.7, D = 1.0, F = 0.0, with the numerical value of each grade being: A=94-100, A-=90-93, B+=87-89, B=84-86, B-=80-83, C+=77-79, C=74-76, C-=70-73, D=60-69, F=<60.>
Freshman, Patrick Hickey, stated in an interview, “The new plus/minus grading scale is much better than the old policy at Georgia, but it still needs a lot of revision. I think that UGA ultimately needs to go to an 100-point scale, where, in order to keep the HOPE scholarship, a student must keep an 85 overall average.” Currently, Patrick believes that the HOPE scholarship should be distributed to students with a 3.0 GPA on the plus/minus scale. As the policy is now, students can receive a 3.0 on the old scale still receive the HOPE scholarship. He also argues that the fact that there is no “A+” on the new grading scale is ridiculous. Saying, “If there is a 'B+' and a 'C+', there also must be an 'A+'.” The question then raised is what weight the “A+” grade should receive on the 4.0 scale? In many instances, schools and institutions have a 4.0 range but a student can receive higher than a 4.0.
Some students, like Candler Cook, have slightly different views on the grading system. Cook believes that the new plus/minus grades are not a good idea and that UGA should return to its old way of grading. Upset by the fact that his 90 average will not in fact give him a 4.0, Cook, along with many others, would appreciate the traditional 4.0 scale. Cook agrees with Hickey and is also perturbed at the fact the there is no “A+” within the new grading range. Although he thinks that there should not be a plus/minus system, he does think that if one is to be put into effect, it should be perfected first.
Faculty are affected by this grading change too. Stephen Tully, a history Teacher's Aid, voices his thoughts on the new system: “[The plus/minus grading system] certainly provides for more precision in grading which gives a more accurate account of student performance. However, I will be curious to see how this effects overall grade point averages. I suspect they may go down.” Tully believes that the new way that the University handles GPA will allow teachers to give grades that reflect students' true grades. In the past, teachers felt obligated to give students higher grades because they felt like grades on the old scale did not give a realistic reflection of a student's effort.
There are alternatives to a 4.0 scale like the one used at Georgia. A 100-point scale is the fairest way to grade. It provides an accurate representation of a students actual grade. In the old system, ten percentage points were given the same weight; on the new scale, four numbers have the same weight on the overall GPA. If the 100-point scale were in use, students would stress for every point because each point means more.
Students frequently study to keep their grades up now that there is more on the line. Grades can change GPA's far easier than before. It seems as though other scales, such as the 100-point scale, reflect grades and the work of students better. Is the new policy fair to the students and does it mean that the HOPE scholarship will be harder to obtain in the future? The scholarship is a statewide grant, so it is only fair that everyone should be on the same scale, whether it is the standard A, B, C scale, the plus/minus scale, or the one hundred point scale. The government would like to raise the state's educational standards by having colleges alter their criteria for obtaining the minimum average. There is still a lot of work to be done with the grading process, and students need to voice their opinions support those ideas.
Bibliography
Cook, Candler. Personal interview. 22 Oct. 2007.
Healy, Patrick. "HOPE Scholarships Transform the University of Georgia." Chronicle of Higher Education 44.11 (1997): a32-a34. GALILEO. 23 Oct. 2007
Hickey, Patrick. Personal interview. 17 Oct. 2007.
"Plus/Minus Grading FAQ." University of Georgia. 17 Oct. 2007
Tully, Stephen. E-Mail interview. 20 Oct. 2007.
1 comment:
The system grossly overestimates the accuracy of grading. A large part of grading in this archaic system is subjective. If a professor doesn't like you for some silly reason that is not justified, he might straw man all your answers on the test. He might give you less partial credit than other students on super hard tests. Sometimes professors ask questions and expect answers that have nothing to do with the answer logically necessitated by the question.
In the past if you were an A student, you might get a low 90 something even with the worst professor. This is the way it is SUPPOSED to be. These professors are not all competent or qualified enough to have their assessment of your academic accomplishments considered that precisely.
Post a Comment