The study indicated that student teaching is an anxiety-producing experience but little difference exists between students taking it by pass/fail and those taking it by grade. Both tended to experience loss of sleep and appetite changes and higher anxiety levels when confronted with situations involving the university coordinator. (NQA)

A comparison of student performance resulting from the transition from a pass/no credit to the traditional letter grade system indicated that the former system was not superior to the latter system. Academic performance was better in the graded system; academic standards were raised, particularly at the masters' level. (Author/GK)

Letter grades or an equivalent rating system serve a natural, logical, and perfectly defensible function in evaluation and reporting. (RC)

Article examined the provisions typical of pass/fail plans implemented in several high schools in this country to determine if these provisions are likely to enhance accomplishment of the objectives of the pass/fail grading innovation. (Author/RK)

Although the majority of faculty members surveyed favored the structure, purposes, and operation of pass/not pass grading, they preferred limited use of the option by students. (Author)

The various no-grade evaluational options recently introduced on the academic scene are grading in disguise. (Author)

There is increasing protest regarding the validity and usefulness of current methods of evaluating students' abilities and achievements. With higher education accessible to the masses, increased competition for college, graduate school, and good jobs has made the attainment of "good grades" more important than ever. Yet the appearance of…

Traditional grading was replaced with the Honors-Pass-Fail (H-P-F) grading system in graduate education courses at Herbert H. Lehman College in the fall 1971 semester. The purpose of that action was to determine if the H-P-F system might differentiate more effectively between exceptional and average student achievement. The general findings of the…

This study was designed to ascertain a) the distribution of student teaching letter grades in 29 Iowa teacher education institutions from 1967-70; b) the predictive value of student teaching letter grades held by superintendents; and c) the preference of Iowa superintendents concerning the present letter grade and recommendation system versus the…

Two articles in this newsletter describe programs related to the use of investigative laboratories in college biology; one reports on student reactions to such laboratories; and two articles describe student directed activities concerned with environmental factors. Comments on the changing role of biology in the 70's, and its implication for…

The purpose of this survey of the grading policies of the AACRAO member institutions was to determine: (1) the nature and extent of changes from the traditional grading system; (2) practices in accepting transfer students and credits from institutions with nontraditional grading systems; (3) the rate and recency of change in grading systems; and…

Results suggest that different groups of judges do set similar examination standards when using the same procedure, and that the average of individual judgments does not differ significantly from group consensus judgments. Significant differences were found, however, between the standards set by the two procedures employed. (RC)

To improve on cutoff scores based on absolute standards which may produce an unacceptable number of failures, a compromise is suggested. The compromise draws on the information in the observed score distribution to adjust the standard. Three compromise models developed by Hofstee, Beuk, and De Gruijter are compared. (Author/GDC)

This study investigated the validity of the assumption that pass-fail courses correlate with less academic achievement and considered other factors relevant to the basic justification for the pass-fail system. (Author/RK)