Spring Break
New grading system sparks controversy
Aaron Hedge
Issue date: 12/10/07 Section: News
Tim Gallagher, finance and real estate professor echoed Sraayer's sentiments, saying the scope of different classes and teaching styles at CSU require a flexible policy that allows for personal discretion in grading.
"In my own class, I have to ask the question, are these people … ready to do upper-level work in finance?" Gallagher said. "If the answer is no, I give them a D or an F and they don't go on."
While the overwhelming majority of faculty members at CSU knows that a change was necessary, most say the Faculty Council's decision helped, but didn't quite get the job done.
An increasing number of colleges use a plus or minus grading system. Of the 35 U.S. institutions that changed their grading policies in the past five years, eight percent eradicated plusses or minuses, while the remaining 92 percent added them.
Of CSU's 24 peer institutions, 18 f them use plusses and minuses.
The new policy is step in the right direction, Lamborn said, but the issue is so complex that there may never be a comprehensive solution.
"It's not a perfect policy," he said. "But it does fix the spot where the combination of those policies have the greatest possibilities of unfairness."
Assistant News Editor Aaron Hedge can be reached at news@collegian.com.
"In my own class, I have to ask the question, are these people … ready to do upper-level work in finance?" Gallagher said. "If the answer is no, I give them a D or an F and they don't go on."
While the overwhelming majority of faculty members at CSU knows that a change was necessary, most say the Faculty Council's decision helped, but didn't quite get the job done.
An increasing number of colleges use a plus or minus grading system. Of the 35 U.S. institutions that changed their grading policies in the past five years, eight percent eradicated plusses or minuses, while the remaining 92 percent added them.
Of CSU's 24 peer institutions, 18 f them use plusses and minuses.
The new policy is step in the right direction, Lamborn said, but the issue is so complex that there may never be a comprehensive solution.
"It's not a perfect policy," he said. "But it does fix the spot where the combination of those policies have the greatest possibilities of unfairness."
Assistant News Editor Aaron Hedge can be reached at news@collegian.com.
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