Drake University

Open Forum on Plus-Minus Grading

Forum Attended by Students and members of Student Senate and Faculty Senate

October 10, 2012

Notes compiled by Keith Summerville, Faculty Senate President

• Took poll – alpha cappa psi – our professors do not adequately use blackboard – more uncertainty about where we stand in our classes. Many hand raised about communication

• Prospective students might not like / do not like +/- grading system – the rationale to go to drake is to get jobs and we need to understand that deflationary grade pressure created by +/- might harm our competitiveness in the marketplace.

• Hovering around A/B range – getting a B+ punishes me for being borderline / close performance

• At Drake we provide ourselves on being go-getters – putting more stress on the people that try to get A grades will decrease involvement in outside activities.

• No one will convince me that an A- is ok – I strive to do the best that I possibly can and the time that I will spend studying for classes will take away from outside activities

• Can we transition this program for existing students – if this program was implemented and phased in for future students then current students would feel some relief

• +/- disfavors risk in the classroom because there will be a penalty for risk taking courses outside an area of expertise

• Students that lack natural ability feel punished by +/- grading system – classes where grades are based on writing or other soft rubrics make assessment difficult

• Numeric grading system? Something other than +/- ; what other options are being considered by Senate and why is this the only one being considered if that is true.

• Feel +/- grading would be hurting top students.

• +/- grading hurts top students more.

• ‘Students at Drake don’t feel comfortable unless they are stressing ‘– Drake mission statement is key to why I can here – I don’t want to have to shift my experiences outside of the classroom in lieu of experiences inside the classroom. This initiative would move Drake away from drake’ mission.

• Different professors being able to use different methods would confuse understanding of GPA

• Companies not interested in fine grain grading system – companies want experiences and research projects.

• Drake university prides itself on having a 96% employment rate - +/- will hurt

• Point of education is to empower the student and putting ability to assess in professors; new system will empower professors not students

• +/- will make it more difficult to get into graduate school

• Outreach – students in pre-pharmacy and business law 3-3 program are concerned about how this.

• AOI classes should not have +/- grades because.

• Leave grading system where it is if only 66% of faculty think it is a good idea.

• Will this cost me $?

• Will this create a system where faculty are backlogged with office hours?

• Support for the idea – when I work harder I feel like I deserve a higher reward; not a good way to implement this – teachers do whatever they want anyway.

• Taking classes outside your comfort zone is something that is attractive about Drake and part of the benefit of being here is taking risks and +/- harms that.

• Two goals of being a student is learning and be able to apply learning towards a productive end. We need to make sure the conversation is focused on creating an environment that is most conducive to learning

• If you are a student that has to take 18 creds per semester than the +/- grading system will hurt students more because of load

• Grading written assignments is subjective in many contexts as well;

• Assign rewards due through the letters of recommendation not +/-

• Maintaining scholarships is something that could be compromised by the +/- system if GPA will decline.

• Make it a lot harder to get into grad school –

• Top performers will get A grades anyway – so this hurts the marginal top performers.

• This will compromise the ability for Drake to maintain meaningful personal lives

• Employer will take experience more than GPA

• Discussion on a plus grading system – is there even a remote possibility of a plus system without minus

• From a pharmacy perspective – pharmacy competition is large and competition will be exacerbated.