"Narrative" Evaluation

Greetings once again, DL friends:

I'm overviewing some of the MA programs that practice "narrative" evaluation (e.g., Prescott College). Is there any potential drawback to getting a "narrativized" MA rather than an MA with grades like "A" or "F+"???? I understand the reasoning behind it, I think, I'm just concerned that a PhD program may look at it and say "where are the grades???"

Christopher Green

 

Suny Empire State works the same for undergrate as well as graduate. When I question this I was told that while obtaining a grade is important , as an adult learning a narrative is more important than a grade. I have gotten around it by asking for grades so that I can be reimbursed by my employer.

I have inquired of some of the schools that I am interested in and was told that narrative are quite common and that they can pretty much determine a grade based on the information in the narrative.

 

Interesting 9Chris. And quite plausible. However, for those of us without your experience, many of whom are contemplating similar programs, could you give us more details?

The only problem I can foresee is in hurdling the largest grad schools, where bureaucracy trumps such solicitous attentions.

What schools have you "inquired of?"
What did they, specifically, say?

--Orson

 

Wouldn't narrative evaluation be more likely to generate lawsuits over "unfairness" than letter grades?

 

originally posted by Orson

Interesting 9Chris. And quite plausible. However, for those of us without your experience, many of whom are contemplating similar programs, could you give us more details?

The only problem I can foresee is in hurdling the largest grad schools, where bureaucracy trumps such solicitous attentions.

What schools have you "inquired of?"
What did they, specifically, say?

It is ESC's policy to include all detailed narratives with the transcipts from each course taken. With that in mind, I contacted both Amberton and Touro, who were both familiar with ESC narrative format. I was told that they could get a relative idea of the grade based on the narrative. They would than be able to calculate a GPA.

ESC's narrative is very detailed. It is broken down by purpose, learning activities, methods and criteria for evaluation.

In my case if I do not get a letter grade I am only reimbursed 50% for a p/f course. To get around this I request that a letter grade be added to my narrative.

At the bottom of my narrative from ESC it states the following:
"It is the policy of ESC to give detailed narrative evaluations rather than letter grade. If a letter grade were to be awarded based on the student's performance, It would be and ___"

If more Masters programs are going to a narrative based evaluation, then maybe the larger grad schools are becoming familiar with the practice.

I would check with eah school you intent to go to and question admisiion about narrative evaluations.

Good Luck

 

Thanks 9Chris

Thanks 9Chris...

Of course, if anyone actually inquires about narrative evaluation, the admissions department is going to say that it is a good thing. They want to sell the degree on you. But if they DO have criteria that is strict enough to go from a narrative to a grade, why not just give you the grade?

The whole "Narrative evaluation" method smacks to me of an excuse for not giving grades and instead--evaluating everyone on a "pass/fail" basis, which makes the degree look easier and thus, less valuable because easier to obtain.

 

For many years (and maybe still so) University of California at Santa Cruz did not give grades (only paas or fail) and many of their undergrads went on to earn doctorates. Incidently I am considering pursuing a Prescott masters in environmental studies..

 

I am not a big fan of grades. I gave then intrinsic merit until I saw how political pressure tweaked them at an RA university.They do have extrinsic merit since they are the standard shorthand evaluation method. The (RA) college I attended gave all students the option of pass/fail or letter grades at the time I was there. It did not take a lot of foresight to understand that letter grades would be a lot more impressive on applying to grad school. Certainly a narrative evaluation would give a better picture than a silly letter grade, provided the admission folks at your hoped-for grad school are not overly bureaucratic or just plain overworked and have time and willingness to plow through the information. After personal experience in which authenticity of transcripts was questioned even when sent directly from one RA grad school to another, I would be very leery of the narrative option because of what functionaries down the line might do (or fail to do) with it.

 

My MA from Antioch was through narrative evaluations -- never had a problem or question about it.

John

 

I am currently in a master's program at a school where narrative evals are the norm. Our catalog states that a 'credit awarded' notation on the evaluation is equivalent to -at least- a B in a letter grade system. We also have the option of asking the instructor to include a grade equivalent on our narrative evals. (However, these letter grades will not appear on official transcripts). You might check to see if the school you are considering has a similar policy.

Grads from the BA program of this school (which also uses narrative evals) have gone on to some pretty good grad schools, including Harvard, so narrative evals may not be a huge prob.

Regards,
GE