A NEW GRADING SYSTEM FOR - University of Texas School of ...

A NEW GRADING SYSTEM FOR

Executive Summary

The Faculty of The University of Texas at Houston School of Public Health voted to change the pass/fail system of grading that had been used by the school since its inception. It was recognized that the Pass/Fail system of grading did not satisfy all of the requirements of the students and faculty and that a modified system should be designed to address specific needs, To this end, a Grading Implementation Working Group was formed and consisted of members of the faculty and administration. The objectives of the working group were to create an equitable grading system that maintains the flexibility of the Pass/Fail system for selected courses, provides a means of generating a GPA, outlines a process for academic probation and termination from a degree program, and encourages a more objective documentation of a student's progress. The Working Group forwarded a proposed plan and recommendations, which were discussed and modified prior to approval by the SPH Executive Committee and the Acting Dean. The following points summarize the newly approved grading system:

? A letter grade system will be adopted for all MPH core courses ? A letter grade or pass/fail system will be an option for elective courses (to be decided by

course instructor) ? "Incompletes" will revert to an "F" if the course work is not completed after one

semester. ? A probationary status designation will be instituted for students who are not performing

adequately ? A termination of degree process will be instituted for students who are consistently

performing below standards ? The new grading system will be implemented at one time for all students regardless of

admission date. ? A Grading System Committee will oversee the implementation process and evaluate the

grading system three years after its implementation.

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Formation and workings of the Grading Implementation Working Group

A collective decision by the Faculty of the UT-H School of Public Health (SPH) was made to change the current Pass/Fail system of grading to provide an alternative mechanism of performance assessment. To this end a special ad hoc group, the Grading Implementation Working Group, was formed with representation from the SPH Faculty, Faculty Governance, and Administration.

Participants in the group were jointly selected by the co-chairs and constituted as follows.

Co-chairs: Cynthia Chappell, PhD (Associate Dean for Academic Affairs) William Mueller, PhD (Chair of the Faculty)

Members: Thomas Connor, PhD (Convener of Environmental Health Sciences and Representative from

the Academic Affairs Committee) Robert Hardy, PhD (At large faculty member) Karen Goodman, PhD (At large faculty member) Stephen Linder, PhD (Convener of Management and Policy Sciences and Representative from

the Faculty Affairs Committee) Bebe Selwyn, DSc (Chair-elect of the Faculty) Mary Ann Smith, PhD (At large faculty member) Stephanie Tamborello, MS (Director of Student Affairs) Erin Fox, MS (student representative) Clint Ladd (student representative)

This group met bi-monthly from May to mid-August, 2001, to deliberate the issues and formulate a modified grading system for the school. The revision and refinement of the working plan were recorded by the co-chairs incorporating discussions and recommendations from the Faculty leadership and the SPH Administration.

Needs and Objectives

It is recognized that the Pass/Fail system of grading in its present form does not satisfy all of the requirements of the students and faculty and that a modified system should be designed to address specific needs, including the following points.

1. Students applying to other programs would greatly benefit by being able to report a grade point average (GPA) from an SPH degree program.

2. The current Pass/Fail system does not provide for an academic probationary status or formal termination from a degree program.

3. Since students' evaluations in the Pass/Fail system are often subjective in nature and difficult to document, faculty are reluctant to give a failing grade when the student's performance is inadequate.

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Thus, the objectives of the working group were to create an equitable grading system that ? maintains the flexibility of the Pass/Fail system for selected courses, ? provides a means of generating a GPA, ? outlines a process for academic probation and termination from a degree program, and ? encourages a more objective documentation of a student's progress.

Process for approval and implementation of recommendations

The Report of the Grading Implementation Working Group was submitted to the Faculty Policy Committee and the SPH Executive Committee for discussion. Following discussion, the Grading System was approved by the SPH Executive Committee on November 15, 2001.

In keeping with the institutional and school policies outlined in Section VII.1 of The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston Faculty Handbook, the Dean of the School of Public Health is the chief academic and administrative officer and "...has the ultimate responsibility for all aspects of School operations..." and as such gave the final and official approval to the new Grading System.

Proposed modifications of the current grading system

The following description and recommendations regarding a plan for a modified grading system are consistent with the academic policies outlined in The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston HOOP and the practices and procedures of the Registrar's Office.

Core and Elective Courses

A letter grade system is proposed for all Core Courses. Core Courses are defined as those courses in each discipline that cover the breadth of the discipline and are appropriate for an introductory course for students with little to no background in the discipline. More than one core course may be identified by a discipline. Courses not designated as Core Courses are referred to as Elective Courses. Elective courses may be designated as a letter graded course or a pass/fail course. The faculty member taking primary responsibility for the course is responsible for designating the grading method. Faculty members must limit the choice of grading system to one or the other designations.

For example, a faculty member could choose to list a particular course in one of two possible ways:

? As a pass/fail course only (Course PH 1000P) ? As a graded course only (Course PH 1000G)

The student Practicum, as well as Thesis and Dissertation Research will be designated as Pass/Fail courses.

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Pass/Fail Option

The Pass/Fail grading option will be similar to what now exists. A student will be assessed with either a "P" or "F" grade. Additional comments on the comment card will be necessary to inform the Student Advisory Committee on the details of the student's progress. However, the student's transcript will reflect only a "P" or "F". Comment card design will be modified to allow for more specific information about academic progress, including a "marginal pass" category (see section below on Probationary Status and Termination).

Letter Grade Option

The Letter Grade option will consist of "A", "B", "C", and "F". All letter grades will be submitted to the Registrar's Office and reported on the student's transcript. GPA will be generated from all letter graded courses and calculated from the following "4-point" numerical scheme:

"A"= 4 points "B"= 3 points "C"= 2 points "F"= 0 points

The "4 point" scheme is adopted since it is consistent with other Schools of Public Health and many other higher education institutions in the U.S. As with the Pass/Fail option, the Letter Grade option includes comment cards for each student. Letter grades are not a substitute for detailed comments regarding the student's academic progress.

Reporting of grades and comment cards

Currently, each student's grades are reported twice: once to the Registrar's Office in the form of the printed, carbon-copy sheets that are currently used and a second time to the SPH online system, which enters both grades and comments. Each entry is mutually exclusive. The student transcript is generated from the Registrar's Office only. Grades and comments entered through the SPH online system are used solely for student advising activities.

The UT-H Registrar's Office is moving toward an electronic system for reporting grades. This system will take the place of the printed sheets (with carbons) that are currently used. Ideally, one online method would report grades to both the Registrar's Office and to the School of Public Health records. An effort will be made to combine the systems. However, it is unclear if these two reporting mechanisms can be made compatible since the comment cards need to be preserved for use with both grading options, but are extraneous to the Registrar's records.

Implementation of the dual grading system

Grade point averages will be generated from all courses designated as "letter grade", i.e. "G"listed courses. Non-graded courses, i.e. "P"-listed courses would not be factored into the GPA. The GPA will be reported on the transcript.

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