Their responses, I wrote, shed light on the “myriad and evolving ways in which grades are perceived,” given developments like the use of pass/fail grading during remote instruction, the ungrading movement, and concerns about grade inflation.
You can read what the folks I asked had to say about A’s here.
Among them is Robert Talbert, a math professor at Grand Valley State University who co-wrote the book Grading for Growth: A Guide to Alternative Grading Practices That Promote Authentic Learning and Student Engagement in Higher Education. Talbert said my question appears in the book’s suggested process for professors to consider when embarking on a new grading approach.
“In the Grading for Growth book, asking yourself what C means and what A means is the starting point we ask faculty to use when designing an alternative grading system,” Talbert told me by email. “Having narratives for those two grades in particular is a useful bracketing strategy, because often our conception of an A is based on our conception of a C (but not necessarily vice versa, interestingly).”
There are, of course, many more concepts of what an A means than those captured in my article. So I also asked readers to weigh in.
One word that came up repeatedly in the responses was “mastery.”
- It means “mastery of the material,” wrote Kenneth Gore, a professor of biblical studies at Dallas Baptist University.
- “It means that students have demonstrated their mastery of the material and that my teaching has been successful,” wrote Jay Spitulnik, director of the health-informatics graduate program and an associate teaching professor at Northeastern University.
- “An A should mean that you have shown complete mastery of the material taught. It should signify excellence. But in this era of ‘everybody gets an A,’ unfortunately, the A grade is commonplace and doesn’t tell the observer much,” wrote Laurie Kopp Weingarten, president of One-Stop College Counseling, an independent education-consulting practice.
I’ll share more reader responses to my question in a future newsletter. It’s not too late to share yours on this form.
I also wonder if you’ve done the anchoring exercise, using both A and C, that Talbert describes. If so, tell me about your experience, at beckie.supiano@chronicle.com, and it may appear in a future newsletter.
The challenge of deadlines
I’ve gotten many interesting responses from readers to a recent newsletter on how to handle deadlines, several of which I included here.
For a different sense of the issues, I wanted to share this comment from Jon Crider, senior director of TRIO programs and an instructor in the history department at Texas Tech University, where he teaches a large survey course. In an email back-and-forth, Crider described continuing to refine the best approach to deadlines:
“I have struggled with dealing with extensions and late papers,” Crider wrote. And he wasn’t sold on the approach outlined in research I covered in a recent newsletter, where assignments have two deadlines — an earlier one students are encouraged to hit, and a built-in extension. “It is really one final deadline with an imaginary deadline before — basically smoke and mirrors — [so] it is a sense of an extension but not really an extension,” he wrote. “I am willing to try it (why not? just add an earlier due date), but I am not sure it really solves the underlying problem of students’ expecting flexibility and accommodation around their schedules rather than the syllabus and university schedules. For my class, I have assigned all papers and projects on Day 1. I spend a full class time, a week or so into the semester, explaining the essays and the expectations. I say they are due by these dates, as listed in the syllabus, but you are welcome to turn in at any time. I will admit that only a small percentage of students turn items in more than a week early. Again, I am at a loss: How do we help teach good habits and completing assignments on time, but also meeting students where they are at — good and bad habits and all?”
“I am still searching,” Crider added. “I think my system does not cause extra problems, but I am still looking for other ways to help the students be more successful.”
Responding to student protests
As student demonstrations spread to more campuses — and a growing number of colleges crack down on them — we want to hear how you’re responding in the classroom. Have you discussed the Israel-Hamas war or the protest movement with your students? Are you making adjustments to finals or other end-of-term plans? Tell us on this form.
Tell us your experience with AI
As another semester comes to an end, we’re interested in an updated picture of how ChatGPT and similar artificial-intellgence tools are affecting your teaching. Has your department or college developed any collective guidance? Are you clear on what to do if you think a student has cheated with AI? Do you feel knowledgeable enough to teach your students about AI and how to use it appropriately in your course? Share your experience using this Google Form to inform our continuing reporting.
Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email us at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com or beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.
As always, nonsubscribers who register for a free Chronicle account can read two articles a month. Your readership supports our journalism.
— Beckie
Learn more about our Teaching newsletter, including how to contact us, at the Teaching newsletter archive page.