the University of Michigan\u2019s pilot program<\/a> to replace traditional letter grades with a pass or no credit system for some freshmen is giving Pittsburgh colleges some pause.<\/p>\nStarting next fall, students entering Michigan\u2019s College of Literature, Science and the Arts will receive pass or no-credit marks on their transcripts for the first semester. Students will still earn private letter grades from instructors, but external transcripts and GPAs will only show if they passed or didn\u2019t earn credit for their first semester.<\/p>\n
Michigan officials are trying the move to ease academic pressure, help freshmen adjust to college and help curb an increasing volume of mental health issues among traditional college-aged students.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a bit of a Band-Aid,\u201d Rindy said. \u201cThis whole question is nothing new. If we were doing a better job with young people, this wouldn\u2019t even be an issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arriving under pressure<\/p>\n
Nationwide, roughly 37% to 45% of college students experience above-average stress or clinical stress diagnoses, reports the American Institute of Stress.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of pressure to do well,\u201d said Rhonda Maneval, Carlow University\u2019s provost. \u201cStudents are trying to figure out what it is they\u2019re to do, and what they\u2019re to become. In the midst of all that, they\u2019re learning how to be a college student. When you come in for that first year, the whole experience requires a quick adjustment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Freshman year can be difficult even for high-achieving high school students.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of these students come in, and they\u2019ve always gotten A\u2019s through their K-12 experience,\u201d said Shari Payne, Point Park University\u2019s provost. \u201cCollege sometimes can be a different story. The assignments, the rigor of the curriculum, it\u2019s another level.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even academically prepared students can find the transition difficult, she said. And those students are not used to asking for help. Part of Slippery Rock\u2019s strategy is to get students to rethink how they see imperfection, Rindy said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe encourage them to develop habits and resources so that if they\u2019re upset with the first C they\u2019ve ever had in their life, they don\u2019t go into panic mode,\u201d Rindy said. \u201cThey think, \u2018I can use the resources available and take action.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Slippery Rock encourages that thought process to extend to students\u2019 families. The university communicates ideas for parents to coach their students when they experience stress after a setback.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not saying, \u2018It will be OK,\u2019 \u201d Rindy said. \u201cIt\u2019s, \u2018What will you do next? What resources do you think you\u2019ll use? How will you change next week?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
Many colleges, including Pennsylvania Western University, offer an introductory course for first-year students to develop study habits, improve time management and learn about other resources on and off campus.<\/p>\n
Leah Chambers, director of PennWest\u2019s First-Year Seminar programming, said her college tracks things like missed classes, missing assignments and low grades so staff can intervene before a problem escalates. Many other colleges have similar warnings in place.<\/p>\n
\u201cGrades provide students with important feedback, but we don\u2019t expect first-year students to figure out what to do with that feedback on their own,\u201d Chambers said. \u201cWe help students learn to respond to a setback, seek support early and keep one low grade from defining their first semester or their college experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
What Pittsburgh colleges are doing<\/p>\n
The launch of the Indiana University of Pennsylvania\u2019s Navigators program in 2023 has led to increases in persistence and retention, said Amber Racchini, vice provost for academic success. The program has 17 full-time staff members assigned to new students, and they serve as students\u2019 \u201cgo-to person\u201d for navigating college from admission to graduation.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe early conversation and connection building is essential to acclimating at IUP,\u201d Racchini said. \u201cHaving a lot of support embedded in IUP has helped our students address academic needs and anxiety related to grades.\u201d<\/p>\n
Colleges offer mental health services to help guide the transition or combat loneliness. Rindy pointed to Slippery Rock\u2019s efforts in helping students find their niche through clubs or work experiences, saying those connections can increase retention.<\/p>\n
Rindy also notices a shift in what employers are looking for when hiring. A report from the National Association of Colleges and Employers found GPA screening by employers dropped from 73% in 2019 to roughly 42%.<\/p>\n
\u201cInstead, more employers are screening for skills and competencies,\u201d Rindy said.<\/p>\n
Maneval highlighted Carlow\u2019s small class sizes \u2014 the average class is 14 students \u2014 and faculty advising model to build relationships rather than relying on a full-time, professional advisor.<\/p>\n
And Point Park students make heavy use of advising, tutoring and mental health resources on campus, Payne said.<\/p>\n
Still, Maneval said, college students ask themselves: \u201cWho am I meant to be?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an important question that many students struggle with, but few institutions move into that space with the student to try and help them figure that out,\u201d she said. \u201cWe don\u2019t just want them to find a great job \u2014 that\u2019s important \u2014 but we want them to find their path in life that\u2019s more than employment.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe struggle when students leave us prematurely. They had a dream, there was something they wanted to accomplish here, and they didn\u2019t stay. We\u2019re always focused on what are the ways that we can help those students, and we can intervene as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Could Michigan\u2019s experiment work?<\/p>\n
Higher education will be watching to see how Michigan\u2019s plan plays out, Maneval said. The impact of Michigan\u2019s plan will be difficult to measure from a mental health standpoint, but retention rates would be more easily measured.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always worry about retaining those students from the first semester to the second because it\u2019s a high-risk time,\u201d Maneval said. \u201cThey\u2019re making an assessment of whether (college) is really right for them, and if they should be doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While it\u2019s too early to say if Carlow would implement such a plan, there could be lessons learned from Michigan\u2019s approach, Maneval said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we think about removing the fear of failure, we might retain more students, and we may have more confident students moving into their future semesters,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re always looking at what is the best thing for our students.\u201d<\/p>\n
Past research may favor Michigan\u2019s decision, according to John Radzilowicz, director of Pedagogy, Practice and Assessment at the University of Pittsburgh\u2019s Teaching Center. In 1968 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, one of the highest-ranked universities in the United States, stopped giving grades to first-year students; their class results<\/a> are marked either \u201cpass\u201d (grade equivalent of A, B of C) or \u201cno record\u201d for D or F.<\/p>\n\u201cThe University of Michigan is acting on what educational research and experience have shown for years: that grading and the assessment of learning are two different things,\u201d Radzilowicz said. \u201cGrading alternatives like cover grades, competency-based grading and upgrading improve students\u2019 mental health, academic performance and retention.\u201d<\/p>\n
Radzilowicz said the current grading system \u201cis a convention, not a law of nature.\u201d It didn\u2019t become widespread in American higher education until after World War II.<\/p>\n
\u201cMichigan appears to be testing something better,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s interesting that in the same semester Michigan covers first-term grades, Harvard announces plans to cap A\u2019s. One institution is being student-centered, the other is putting perception over learning. The research favors Michigan.\u201d<\/p>\n
Long-term impacts won\u2019t be noticed unless Michigan continues the pilot beyond next fall, he said.<\/p>\n
While Payne, the Point Park provost, gets the argument behind grade covering, she doesn\u2019t think her college will adopt it.<\/p>\n
She noted many colleges turned to pass-fail grading in spring 2020 as schools transitioned to new ways of providing education during the covid pandemic. Many universities have since gone back to the traditional letter-grade model.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is a test for Michigan,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it is successful, we\u2019ll hear a lot more about it. And if it\u2019s not, it\u2019ll just go away quietly.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Slippery Rock University students are familiar with an analogy often expressed by administrator John Rindy: You wouldn\u2019t pay…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":268845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[73,75,74],"class_list":["post-268844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=268844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/268844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/268845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=268844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=268844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=268844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}