UNC readies for contextual grading

When students see their transcripts next fall, they will notice some changes that faculty say will make UNC a leader in contextual grading.

The information will include class size, the median grade for each class, the percentile range of the student’s grade and a schedule point average. This information will not be displayed for any courses taken prior to Fall 2014.

“In a nutshell, it’s adding in some new measures and some means and medians for the main aim of cutting down on grade inflation and to give some context between different types of majors and level the playing field in a way,” Student Body Vice President Kyle Villemain said.

Villemain said that the measures are an admission that grade inflation is a systemic problem not caused by individual teachers or students.

One of the main goals is to curb grade inflation by making instructors more comfortable giving lower grades. Sociology professor Andrew Perrin said the problems come from comparing students with different schedules and across majors based on their GPA.

Perrin said that by using GPA to determine eligibility for scholarships and other awards, universities give students taking an easier set of courses an advantage. He said he would eventually like to see contextual information used for these accolades.

Perrin has led the charge for contextual grading here at UNC, which began in the late 1990s. The current set of reforms came about following the 2009 release of a UNC report on grading patterns.

“I think that this is going to make us the leader," he said. "No one has done it as well or as thoroughly as we are going to do it. So this is pretty exciting.”

The SPA calculates the average student's GPA for a specific set of courses in a given semester. Perrin said if a student’s GPA is higher than the SPA, they performed better than would be expected of the average student, creating a strength of schedule measure similar to those used in sports.

Many students have been receptive to the new format.

“I think it’s really good because college is pretty much finding the easiest way," sophomore Akshar Patel said. "There’s all this searching for easy classes and you might not even be more qualified, but if you have better grades they’re going to see that.” 

Freshman Hunter McCann echoed those sentiments.

“I think it’s a good idea. It at least gives you a scale to see where you are with everyone else,” McCann said.

Dartmouth College voted in 1994 to include median grades on their transcripts.

The median grade provides useful information for students, faculty and outsiders, but continued concern about grade inflation led the Faculty Committee on Priorities to start a new conversation about grading at Dartmouth, Registrar Meredith Braz said.

Schools across the country are waiting to see how contextual grading measures will work at UNC.

“It’s really going to be important that we explain what we’re doing here at Carolina, we make other people understand it and ideally that we get some of our peer institutions to buy in and do it there,” Perrin said.

He said that he has talked to colleagues at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at San Diego and Bucknell University and is concerned that the measures may not go far enough to influence grading patterns here.

Assistant Provost and University Registrar Chris Derickson said that within a couple of days of the Faculty Council's vote approving the legislation, he had about 10 registrars from around the country calling him. He said he wants feedback from other schools and plans on testing the changes on students and faculty.

“My first priority is making sure that nothing we do with the contextual transcript has any inadvertent negative effects on our students,” Derickson said.

Villemain said student government would have an educational push, because students need to understand the changes when registering for classes.

"It has a lot of potential, but there's a need to educate the people reading it and students to make sure everyone's on the same page," he said.