Yale Adopting Universal Pass/Fail Grading System for Spring 2020 Semester
“will forgo letter grades and, instead, students will receive a ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ on their transcripts”
Harvard did the same thing a week or two ago. More schools will follow.
Yale Daily News reports:
Yale College adopts universal pass/fail grading policy
Yale College will adopt a universal pass/fail policy for this semester’s grades, according to a Tuesday morning announcement from Yale College Dean Marvin Chun.
The news comes after weeks of polarizing debate that swept through the University and its peer schools, as the novel coronavirus outbreak continues to alter traditional higher education plans. Chun’s email follows a second faculty member poll that showed 55 percent support for the mandatory grading system and 40 percent in favor of the optional Credit/D/Fail policy Yale implemented last month. Those survey results deviated from the first poll, in which only around 28 percent of respondents voted in favor of a proposed universal grading system.
The changes mean that the College will forgo letter grades and, instead, students will receive a “pass” or “fail” on their transcripts. According to the Committee on Teaching and Learning report — circulated among faculty members before the second vote — students who complete “outstanding” work may receive narrative commendations from faculty. These commendations will not appear on students’ transcripts, the report states.
“With majorities of faculty and students supporting the universal pass/fail policy, this decision is final,” Chun wrote in his announcement. “I will no longer consider appeals, and I will now focus on implementing the policy.”
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Comments
This is fine for electives and trivial courses, and it’s a good idea for required “diversity” courses. But grades of “pass” in required science prerequisites will cause unforeseen problems for students in the future.
The premeds will have to contact all the medical schools they are considering to see if they will change their standards and accept grades of “pass” in the required premedical courses.
Students who enter graduate programs will either have to request exceptions to the grades required for prerequisites, or else re-take these courses during their graduate career. I have often had graduate students in my courses who were re-taking the course because they had taken it P/F as undergraduates. Plans change, and they did not realize they would eventually need letter grades.
Mediocre or Less than Mediocre? Average vs Below Average? Normal vs Abnormal. Worthless, socialist certificates.
Why don’t they just give them participation trophys and call it a day?
Why don’t they just give them participation trophies and call it a day?