Browsing: plus and minus system

I support the policy of changing grades, but I’m getting tired of the PR spin from the executives responsible for the change.

Some of the statements in “Minuses added to grading policy: Administration doesn’t anticipate dramatic GPA changes” on Sept. 6 were either misleading or pushing away the problem.

“There is no data to indicate that GPA’s will go down” is a weak defense. Considering that low A’s, B’s, etc. just lost 0.33 GPA points and plus grades are down 0.17, there is no combination of grades where the new system will yield a higher GPA than the old system.

Starting next summer, a new grading policy will be implemented campuswide that establishes minus grades.

While the idea of a new grading system has caused some controversy, Dr. Wesley Null, vice provost for undergraduate education, assures students that the change will not negatively affect them.

“There is no data to indicate that GPAs will go down,” Null said. “We anticipate that the change will mostly result in a wash, if you will, as far as there will be just as many faculty who will decide to go up to an A- from a B+ as those who will assign an A- instead of an A. We don’t anticipate a dramatic change in GPA.”

Baylor recently announced that as of summer 2014, it would be renovating its grading system from a system that only…