By Mallory Bowman & Lan Nguyen
When University of Louisville faculty adopted the plus/minus grading system in 2002, students didn’t welcome it with open arms. Three years later, it is still is an issue among both students and faculty.
“It doesn’t seem to go away,” University Provost Shirley Willihnganz said. “You would think that a decision made in 2002 would have been adapted to by now, but the fact that students and others keep bringing it up suggests that there is something there.”
In 2002, U of L adopted the plus/minus system after a proposal from the college of Arts and Sciences was taken to the faculty and individually adopted by each college.
Associate Provost David Howarth, who was involved in the discussions in 2002, said many professors didn’t feel that the 10-point grading scale without plus/minus notation was allowing them to accurately grade students. The work of a B+ student is noticeably different than that of B- student, Howarth said. But even though the plus/minus system was adopted in 2002 as a university policy, some students have not happily accepted the scale.
“I hate the plus/minus system,” sophomore Jon Cecil said. “An A should be an A. You can work to get an A in a class just as hard as someone who gets an A+ and they are both the same.
One just looks better than the other, and an A- just seems degrading.”
But, student Matt Tobbe said he feels he is benefiting from the current system. “The difference between a B- and a B+ is 10 points. The student with the B+ deserves that recognition.”
U of L Student Government Association Academic Vice-President Alicia Paez said several students have repeatedly voiced concerns to her about the grading system.
“Students feel there is no way they can get the credit for earning an A+,” she said. “With the current grading scale, an A and an A+ both earn 4 grade points, meaning students don’t receive extra points for earning an A+.” Paez said that is where the problem lies, although she said she’s not sure how many students are truly concerned. “I feel like I’ve only heard from the extremely concerned students – the good students,” she said. “I feel like most of the ones I don’t hear from are the ones just making it by, because for those students, most professors will say that they bumped a B- to a B, or a C- to a C. It’s kind of hard to fight against that.”
Students’ vocal concerns were what convinced the faculty senate at Eastern Kentucky University to do away the plus/minus system after utilizing it for only one year. According to EKU’s associate vice president of Academic Affairs, Aaron Thompson, the faculty voted to use and study the plus/minus system in 2001, but before then it had never been used. After a year, the system was put on “moratorium” or suspension for a year for further study. Among the complaints were that an A- counted against a student whereas an A+ counted for nothing, and that many students received an A- when they would’ve received an A if the 10-point scale were being used.
“Although there were some proponents of the system, both faculty and students, we decided not to continue using the system because we had enough response from the students to feel it didn’t benefit them.”
Similarly, Western Kentucky University has no history of plus/minus grading until very recently, when some of the staff recommended it. “We’ve always had a 10-point grading scale and never saw the need for change until one of the faculty proposed plus/minus grading be tried.”
Western is now testing out the plus/minus system in a two-year pilot program. Students receive two online grade reports – one with plus/minus and the other without. The effect of the grading and responses from students will be studied.
Whereas officials and staff at other universities, such as Western, have been able to gain enough student response about grading systems to decide whether to use plus/minus or 10-point, Willihnganz said she, like Paez, has not been able to gauge the level of concern about the plus/minus grading system at U of L. “Certainly a few people have brought the concerns to me,” she said. “But I don’t have a sense if it is many concerned students or just a select few.” Even though student concern does not seem to be widespread, Willihnganz said it is an issue that is being considered.
However, to change the grading system again would be a long process. “It’s not a decision administration can make,” she said. “It’s a decision the faculty of each college must make. However, changing the grading system may not be an effective solution.” Paez said a big concern is the university’s inability to enforce any grading system.Even though U of L has adopted the plus/minus system, Willihnganz said the administration cannot force professors to use it.
“The university must establish some scale for grading, so it can say what that scale is, but within that, we cannot require any faculty to give any grades,” Willihnganz said. All those grades are available, but no one decides which ones to use but the faculty.
However, the university does have a policy that states all professors teaching the same course, such as English 101, must use a uniform grading scale. The issue has been discussed at past faculty senate meetings, and at the last meeting Willihnganz suggested that perhaps the university go to a 4.3 scale so that A+ students would receive more points than A students. For some students that would make the plus/minus system more favorable than the 10-point system.
“I would be for it [plus/minus grading], if A-plusses counted for something. Last semester, I would’ve had a 4.0, but I made one A- and my A-plusses didn’t count for anything extra, so my GPA was a 3.9,” said student Lindsey Powell.
Willihnganz said the university would continue to look at the issue, but there is no timetable and no promise that a change will be made. “I don’t want to predict when or if a change will be made,” she said. “I think we need to talk to the faculty first.”
