Students should enjoy pass/fail grading option while they can
/On the scale of life disruption caused by COVID-19, the effect upon college students and professors ranks only moderately high. Still, banishment from campus and conversion to online learning represent a difficult and unexpected challenge.
One controversial way that many universities have responded is to offer students a choice of having all or selected courses graded by pass/fail rather than by letter grades. Public arguments ensued over whether this is appropriate and compassionate help for students who may struggle under new conditions or another case of sparing fragile minds the burden of dealing with adversity.
Colleges have implemented different versions. The University of Alabama and UAB give all students an irreversible, course-by-course choice by the last day of classes (but before final exams). A course grade of 60 or higher (a D-minus) qualifies for “pass” and counts as credit hours toward graduation and the requirements of a student’s major. A “P” does not affect grade-point average. An “F” does.
Auburn University does it differently. It lets students decide after professors post final grades and offers three choices: “SP,” which is a passing grade for a C or better; “SS,” which is a passing grade for a D; and “UU,” which is a failing grade. Unlike UA, none of those ratings count in GPA calculations, and also unlike UA, an “SS” does not count toward major requirements if a department already required at least a C.
Some universities – Stanford and MIT, for instance – eliminated letter grades and require students to accept pass/fail. That’s nuts, if you ask me. Some colleges haven’t changed their grading at all. Big University of Georgia didn’t. Little Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa didn’t. “It is the intent that the same learning outcomes will be achieved, thus not requiring a different approach to grading,” says an email from Simpson’s president to students.
Plenty of compelling reasons exist to give students a relief valve this semester. Personal stresses that fade to the background while on campus re-emerge upon a return home: family tensions, the burden of caring for other family members, the need for income. I know one student who had to bail out on a very good letter grade because being at home with two young children and a wife working from home was too chaotic of an environment to keep up with school obligations.
“Students who are split up among time zones, without reliable internet access, saddled with home responsibilities and new expenses, and without in-person office hours are at a severe disadvantage, and going through emotional and physical distress.”
Some students face obstacles with resources. Library references and professors are reachable online, but it’s just not the same as on campus. Try doing your best work with an unreliable internet connection or having to wait while someone else uses the only family computer. On-campus education masks a lot of socioeconomic disparities.
Universities that expanded pass/fail grading know that some students just don’t learn well online. Many students need the structure of face-to-face education. On their own, some of them lose track of assignment deadlines and online class times. My Blackboard Grade Center proves that. And I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge that some professors – who, me? – are just not as effective teaching online as in a classroom, especially if it’s an emergency conversion.
Many students around the country demanded that universities provide a broader pass/fail option in the wake of campus shutdowns. A Samford University student, for instance, got over 1,400 signatures on an online petition. (Samford did broaden its pass/fail policy for this semester.) Some students elsewhere even argued that all students should pass all classes automatically. Really. Also nuts, in my book.
The pass/fail option intends to help students whose ability to achieve has been set back by circumstances. But those are not the only students taking advantage of it. One professor in another department said 65 percent of his students in one of his courses registered for pass/fail. In all of my courses, 12 percent did. A few students who have done “D” level work all semester in a course required for their major will now pass and move on to more advanced courses. Previously, that level of work was insufficient to pass. I worry about how those students will fare.
“We are confident our students will rise to the challenge, and the (University System of Georgia) will do everything in its power to help them do so. We trust our faculty to teach and grade students effectively. In times of adversity, we should reach higher, not lower. ”
I also know that some students opted for pass/fail to protect a very high GPA. Fourteen students of mine would have scored 80 or higher but chose pass/fail. Can you blame them? Graduate school programs, professional programs, scholarship and award selectors, and hiring managers all make GPA a big deal.
My moments of exasperation aside, I see more benefit than harm to the pass/fail option in our virus-addled educational environment. It’s an empathetic action. (Avoiding a lot of formal grade appeals may have weighed on some administrators’ minds, too.)
But I hope students will remember one thing: The real world isn’t pass/fail. When adversity strikes out there – a business in an economic downturn, or journalists and essential workers in a disaster, or whatever – your future job won’t become pass/fail. Bosses, customers, audience and community will all expect you not just to pass, but also to excel in the face of calamity.