In another thread Rich says "I hate grades". While I'm not in love with the concept, I see grades as a necessary thing. Why? I tell my students the following things about grades in all my classes. The words may vary term to term, but here are the essential points: "Understand that the real benefit of grades lies in providing short term feedback on your performance in class. Most people take grades personally, but I'd encourage you to focus more on learning and less on grades earned. If you are a mid-career professional in a graduate program, I suspect that grades will matter very little to your employer. If you are an undergraduate, grades may matter in terms of your parents, financial aid and ability to get into graduate programs or get hired for a job. In either case, five years from now no one will know or care what grade you earned in this class. They will care how competent you are and if you are a person of integrity. Hence, I'll talk some more about cheating...." As for the use of grades by others - colleges have to have some measure of incoming students' abilities. Hence, High School and College GPAs get used in admission processes, as do nationally normed exams like the ACT, GMAT and the SAT. Employers of recent college grads - those with no significant work experience may use grades as a proxy for competence, even though they may not work very well. Grades have been around for a while and are likely to stay. Pass/fail systems haven't done the job. Training may survive with pass/fail, but universities need a finer filter. As for Rich's concern about the accuracy of grades, there are two factors to consider. One is reliability, that is to say if a student took a test a second time or was evaluated by a second professor, would he get the same grade? The other concern is validity - does the grade measure what you expect it to measure, namely "learning" in a subject area. In many cases they may actually do more of a job in measuring a student's conformance to his/her prof's requirement. To the extent that the prof is an expert in his/her field, this may not be all bad. Are there likely to be both reliability and validity issues in grades? Probably, but profs can do a lot to help reduce the problem. I'm not in love with grades, but I don't see a better way to go. Regards - Andy
I had a hard time getting into an advanced degree program for reasons non other than my BS degree grades....I could only wish I did a good job at earning good grades in my younger years...too late!
Hi Dr. Borchers, Entrance exams such as the GMAT, MCAT and LSAT have alway (and will always) rely on grades in order to measure the competence levels of prospective graduate students. The grading system also acts as a filter to allow or admit only those who have made it to the top tier or quartile. However, once admitted to a particular program, such as the social sciences or business, the Fail/Pass/Pass with Distinction system does have validity. Prof. Stephen Brookfield, a well known professor and author of several books on teaching and adult education, believes that this method works well. He has looked at a number of studies involving college graduates and careers. He found that the Fail/Pass/Pass with Distinction method carries as much validity as percentage grades. In fact, he was able to observe that quite a few graduates of the Fail/Pass/Pass with Distinction approach did as well in their careers as those graduates who graduated from a traditional grading system. Now, I'm not saying that all colleges and universities should alter their grading systems, but this approach does have benefits for students and college administrations. just my two cents worth...... regards,
