If a liberal arts education should prepare our students to participate in a meaningful way in democracy, what does that mean for how we design our courses across disciplines? In this paper, I first address the question: who should teach democratic skills? Using an upper-level course in Canadian politics, I then illustrate how to explicitly…

The purpose of the study is to investigate rating behavior between Korean and native English speaking (NES) raters. Five Korean English teachers and five NES teachers graded 420 essays written by Korean college freshmen and completed survey questionnaires. The grading data were analyzed with FACETS program. The results revealed Korean raters'…

After examining some of the pros and cons of traditional grading, the demands colleges make on grading practices, and the responses of people interested in grading, a number of examples of operating alternative systems are given. The alternatives include a dual (pass/withdraw grading in some courses, traditional grading in others) system, a…

Findings appear to bear out the contention that students tend to support a more widespred use of pass-fail grading. (Editor/PG)

DATA ON ENROLLMENT AND PERFORMANCE IN COURSES TAKEN ON A PASS-FAIL BASIS WERE ANALYZED TO ASSESS THE EFFORT OF CHANGES IN GRADE ACCOUNTING ON COMPREHENSIVE EXAMINATIONS. FINDINGS INDICATED THAT (1) ENROLLMENT IN PASS-FAIL COURSES FOR 1966-67 INCREASED 55.5 PERCENT OVER 1965-66, (2) A STUDENT'S GRADE INDEX WAS LIKELY TO INCREASE DIRECTLY WITH THE…

The thesis that low grades cause college students to give up receives some support from early psychological research and from current reinforcement theories. This study investigates the effects on subsequent grades of low, average, and high first-exam grades for 192 students in a traditional grading system and 52 students in a pass-fail grading…

In what is the only controlled experiment on the incentive value of letter grades in the university classroom, students were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 conditions: conventional letter-grading, pass-fail, or nonevaluation. During the semester in which the experiment was conducted, the pass-fail students studied only 50% as much and achieved 89% as…

This article discusses the inadequacy of the accepted systems of grading students and proposes the use of student evaluation profiles as a more efficient means of evaluating achievement. (DMT)

The authors conclude that the pass fail option appears to have little effect on general rated satisfaction with courses and instructors, but generates a special type of dissatisfaction completely different from that of traditionally graded students. (Author)

A survey of the literature points to the conclusion that research thus far has failed to substantiate the success of the pass fail grading option. In light of these findings, it is noted that faculties throughout the country continue to adopt the program. (Author/BY)

In this study it was found that student attitudes toward grading policy at the university are not closely related either to their aspiration for grades or to their actual grade achievement. The evidence suggests that a majority of students favor pass or fail grading because they dislike competition, tests, and study. (Author/BY)

Describes the development and implication of a pass-fail grading system for student teaching at Central Michigan University. (RT)

"Quality Counts 2012," the 16th edition of "Education Week"'s annual examination of issues and challenges facing America's public schools, takes aim at topics high on the policy agenda, from the White House and Congress down to the level of local school boards and chambers of commerce: the nation's international standing in…

In this article concerning grade inflation, the author restricts his attention to the college and university level, although many of the tools and ideas developed here should be useful for high schools as well. The author considers the relationships between grades instructors assign and scores they receive on end-of-the semester student…