Senators want pluses, minuses on grades

Computer systems prepared to handle proposed grade system

By Bill Keran
The Metropolitan

Metroâs Faculty Senate wants to institute a new grading system in the name of fairness and precision.
The new system would give instructors the option of assigning letter grades with plus or minus notations. Faculty Senate President Monys Hagen said Metroâs transition to plus/minus grading would put the college in line with other colleges.

Mesa State and Western State Colleges,  which belong to the state college system that Metro is part of, and the University of Colorado all use a plus/ minus grading system.

Tom Altherr, a history professor and Faculty Senate secretary, said Metroâs current grading system, which is based on using ten decimal points between grades, is not a good enough indicator of studentsâ work in class.

ãThe ten-point range is just too broad to indicate the performance of how the student did,ä he said. ãThe more precise it can be, the better for everyone involved.ä

Hagen agreed. The plus/minus system would fight the appearance of grade inflation, she said.

ãThereâs a tremendous difference between the student who slides in the back door for a B with a 79.5 and the student who has an 89,ä she said. ãItâs not a fair reflection of the studentâs performance.

ãThere is probably, in some instances, inflation because 79.5 will get the B instead of the C, because the professor goes, ÎOh, itâs so close,â but itâs not really B work,ä Hagen said.

The issue of a plus/minus grading system is not a new one at Metro. The Faculty Senate passed an unanimous resolution favoring the change two years ago, but administrators opposed it because the collegeâs grade computing system wasnât programmed to handle plus and minus grades.

But Metro President Sheila Kaplan has since changed her mind and seemed ãto think itâs a good idea that transcripts reflect performance,ä Hagen said.

The school has upgraded its computers, and Hagen said the Faculty Senate hopes to have the new grading system in place for fall 1998.

Altherr said students who have been graded under the 10-point system probably would finish college under that system. And professors who swear by the current system will not be forced to add a plus/minus notation to grades.

Altherr said if an instructor didnât want to add a plus or minus, they could say everyone earned a straight letter grade.

The specifics of the program have yet to be decided, Altherr said.

For most colleges that use the system, letter grades are given a whole number on a four-point system. A grades are worth four points, and D grades are worth one point.  Plus grades add .3 points to the letter grade, and minus grades subtract 0.3 points. Thus, a B is worth 3.0, a B+ is worth 3.3, and a B- is worth 2.7.

ãThere wouldnât be an A+, but there would be an A grade,ä Altherr said, adding that the plus/minus designations might go down through F+. The prospect of giving an F-, however, confounded some professors.

ãOne meeting we had on this lead to a philosophical discussion,ä Altherr said. ãCould you have an F minus, where you got a minus 0.3?ä