The New Grading System
by: Kaitlyn Oates
Many students on the Ole Miss campus may be unaware that the University plans to implement a new plus/minus grading system starting as early as the Fall 2011. While some students may see this as a negative thing, several people on campus believe it will boost the morale of the campus. Those who have worked hard for an A in a class but have just fallen short and then receive a B will now find new hope to know that they can be rewarded with a B+.
I talked with Andrus Ashoo who is an Advisement Specialist for the Office of National Scholarships in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College. “Now, there is incentive for the person who can get into that range to try and give a better, more well-thought out answer and get a B+.” He believes that it will help that person who skates by in class, giving average answers, and will motivate them want to step up to earn that B+. A B+ will be awarded a 3.3 as opposed to a B- which would receive a 2.7. Grades in the D and F range will not have a plus/minus system and an A+ would earn the same as an A.
This isn't the first time this grading system has been considered. Back in 2006, Ashoo was the Director of Academic Affairs when the issue was brought to the table. It was then recommended to Chancellor Khayat that the system not be approved because their wasn't a solid plan on how this grading system would be implemented. The new plan however has been in the talks for several years since.
Dr. Douglass Sullivan-Gonzalez, Dean of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College, believes that it will negatively impact those students making straight A's. Some may be unhappy earning that A- instead of an A. He doesn't think it is going to impact the overall GPA of the campus though. “Will the overall GPA change because of the system? I doubt it.”
Honors College students will probably be impacted the most. As an Honors student you must keep a 3.2 GPA your freshmen year, 3.4 your sophomore year, and a 3.5 your junior and senior years. Those students may have a harder time reaching that benchmark.
In an older article of The Daily Mississippian, it was reported that of the top 20 research institutes and the top 20 liberal arts schools, as many as 90 percent of them used the plus/minus grading system. Overall, Ashoo hopes it will help with accuracy in grading for teachers and make us more well respected on a national scale because we now grade with more accuracy.
http://www.honors.olemiss.edu/index.asp
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