This paper discusses the use of specification grading in sport management courses. The process organizes assignments around grading bundles and evaluates students as either Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory in meeting each assignment. A token system is created to provide flexibility to the students. There are advantages to using specification…

This SoTL project explored sources of student anxiety and motivation across student assessment conditions of traditional numerical grading and pass/fail grading and sought to determine if pass/fail grading was helpful in lowering student anxiety while increasing student motivation to learn. Results indicated that students scored equally well on a…

Public administration scholarship has documented the effectiveness of rubrics in assessing student competencies within classrooms and across MPA programs. Rubrics are one of many innovative techniques, however. As we advance pedagogy in public administration, scholars should consider additional grading techniques and evaluate a grading system…

Three field studies tested the hypothesis that anticipating a graded test as opposed to a pass-fail test enhances metacognitive monitoring. Participants were teacher candidates who completed a mid-term and a final test in psychology courses. Each participant chose whether the result of the final test should be evaluated with one of five grades or…

The author's community, which includes parents of the 62,000 students who attend schools in Volusia County, Florida, has been baffled over the conflicting nature of Florida's school grading system of A, B, C, D, F based on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, and the federal system of pass or fail. While many of the 80 schools in her…

College students' categorical perceptions of numeric and alphabetic grades were examined by assigning participants to one of four conditions: numeric grades alphabetic grades, numeric non-grades and alphabetic non-grades. They were then asked to give ratings for each possible grade or non-grade, using a 10-point scale. Factor analysis revealed…

In this article, Thomas Deering addresses possibly the most written about component of teacher preparation: "student teaching." Deering states that a cursory examination of literature databases identified some 4000 articles on this topic, spanning the last three decades. An issue often related to Professional Development Schools (PDSs)…

Questionnarie data were obtained from 391 (58% of 668 deans of U.S. graduate and professional programs in liberal arts and sciences, education, law, medicine, and nursing on nontraditional undergraduate grading systems. The major findings are that: (1) grade-point averages remain the single most important criterion for the evaluation of graduate…

Comments and points representing "lore" rather than proven facts are presented in this outline to summarize some of the issues raised by critics and proponents of various methods of grading rather than presenting a summary of research. Pro and con arguments are those typically advanced by proponents or detractors and are not presented as facts.…

The Honors-Pass-Fail (H-P-F) grading system was introduced experimentally in the fall 1971 semester to replace the traditional A-B-C-F grading system in graduate courses in education at Herbert H. Lehman College. The purpose was to determine if H-P-F discriminated more sharply between exceptional and average student achievement than the…

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University implemented a pass-fail grading system two years ago. The procedure in use appears to be working smoothly and suffers little abuse. Aside from physical education, courses taught under this system primarily are taken by seniors. The number of courses elected for pass-fail grading is small: 3.3…

This paper summarizes the author's research on the pass/fail grading system at Washington State University. Specifically, the paper presents (1) a discussion of the use of the pass/fail grading option at WSU and enrollment trends under this option first available in summer 1968 as a 3-year experiment; (2) an analysis of the questionnaire…

It is the recommendation of the Committee on Academic Progress of Students to the Faculty Council at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro that each undergraduate student may elect to be evaluated on a "Pass/Not Pass" scale in 1 course each semester, with a maximum of 8 courses being allowed for the degree. One semester courses are exempt…