Plus/minus grading is set to become a thing of the past for UW, as Faculty Senate passed a resolution on Monday to switch to whole-letter grades in all departments.
27 faculty senators voted in favor of whole-letter grades, and 15 in favor of keeping plus/minus distinctions—close to a 2/3 majority.
John Willford, assistant lecturer in the Department of Microbiology, said he has struggled with almost-there whole-letter grades that may not accurately reflect a student’s work, but that his own data shows plus/minus grading would ultimately hurt his students—especially those on the high end, such as A grades becoming A- grades.
“I have to err on the side of letting people get what they earn rather than making that 88 stand out over the 80,” Willford said. “If I think about it, my job isn’t just to assign grades, it’s to teach these students. And if you demonstrate an 88 with me, you’re going to be better off than a student who demonstrates an 80, and it’ll show up over time. I think that’s where I can get behind this and say I’m ok, I’m very supportive, looking at my data, of full-letter grades.”
While plus/minus grading can account for a wider difference in student performance within a letter grade, it also has a more direct impact on grade point average. Instead of a flat effect on GPA, as a whole-letter grade would have, each grade has three levels—a B would be worth 3.0, but a B- would be worth 2.67 while a B+ would be worth 3.3. Students on the lower end of a letter spectrum would receive less value than a simple whole-letter grade, while those on the higher end would receive more.
Resolutions have previously been passed by ASUW in support of whole-letter grading, after survey results found that students preferred them to the more exact plus/minus. ASUW President Seth Jones said that students had concerns similar to what Willford stated would ultimately be a negative result.
“81 percent of students supported whole-letter grades compared to plus/minus, so an overwhelming majority of students we surveyed back in the spring were very much for that,” Jones said. “Some of the big arguments that we always had were if you come into a class, and there’s plus/minus implemented, you’re less motivated to work towards those higher-letter grades if you’re going to be screwed over by .5 of a point. A 92 is a lot more easy to attain for an A than maybe a 93 or a 95.”
Some faculty felt that the more specific recognition of high-end grades within a letter range was worth maintaining.
“Plus/minus is more precise, and there’s already potential grade inflation issues,” Erin Bush, assistant professor and senator of the Health Sciences Division of Communication Disorders, said. “Going to full-letter grades, they (Communication Disorders faculty) felt, would make that worse.”
Other speakers were in favor of at least keeping the option available for faculty to recognize students that would have achieved a plus grade. However, consistency was a priority for setting the new grading standard.
“The main purpose of the administration is to try and come up with an agreed grading system across campus,” Faculty Senate Chair Donal O’Toole said.
The senate was asked years ago to decide on a preference for a campus-wide grading system, allowing teachers to set the course of grading scale changes. Michael Barker, previous Faculty Senate chair, made progress on the matter a priority, eventually resulting in this week’s vote. Having been passed by faculty, the resolution will proceed to the UW Board of Trustees for final confirmation.
