Plus/minus
grading system effects weighed by committee
By
Dylana Foy
Online Forty-Niner
Contributing Writer
In the ongoing discussion on the effects of a plus/minus grading system, presenters
at the ad-hoc committee meeting Wednesday showed how the new system could cause
more students to be put on academic probation, but that the system would also
provide a better reflection of student academic performance.
This was the third meeting for the committee, which focused on gathering information
so the committee could make an informed decision in the future.
Leading the committee was marketing professor Praveen Soni.
“
We do not want unintended consequences, that is the point of this committee,” Soni
said.
CSULB and Cal State Fresno are the only California State University schools
to not have a plus/minus grading system.
So far, no schools with the plus/minus grading system are trying to change
it to a letter-grading system.
Major concern over implementing a plus/minus grading system lies in the C-.
In the ad-hoc committee meeting, a majority of the time was spent discussing
what a C- grade would mean to students.
At CSULB a C grade is a 2.0. In many major departments or classes, a student
must have a C or better, or a 2.0 in the class to pass. If a plus/minus system
were to be implemented, a student could receive a C- and only get a 1.7 grade,
which means they would not get the 2.0 needed to pass the class. Some departments
vary on how grades are accepted.
In some departments students must have a C or better in major classes to move
on, the committee said. In other departments students must have a C average,
which means they could get a D in a class and still be able to graduate because
they maintained a C average.
This C- issue can mean a number of things for students. With a plus/minus system
in place, the school can potentially increase the number of students on probation.
Currently, students at CSULB can remain on probation for two consecutive semesters.
According to Marilee Samuelson at the Academic Advising Center, at any one
time there are 1,600 CSULB students on probation. A majority of students on
probation are juniors and seniors. CSULB students have the lowest amount of
freshmen on probation than any other CSU campus, according to Samuelson.
Karen Clippingers, a dance and sports kinesiologist, said some students and
professors believe it is unfair to reward students equally when there is unequal
effort.
Currently, a student who gets an 81 percent in class gets the same amount of
credit as a student that gets an 89 percent in the same class, even though
the first student is closer to a C grade, and the second student is closer
to an A grade.
Clippingers said the dance department voted unanimously in favor of plus/minus
grading system. According to research by Clippingers, the plus/minus system
in the dance department is a clearer reflection of student performance, and
because most students in dance technique/composition classes get As or Bs,
this specific ability to distinguish levels of performance becomes particularly
important.
Clippingers said there are a number of students who fall right on the edge
of a grade category (e.g., 89.0-89.9 or79.0-79.9) and the use of a plus would
be helpful to reflect this higher level of accomplishment.
|
