In the Fall of 2014, I was a part of an English class at Clemson University that employed the non-traditional grading system known as the pass/fail system. In short, evaluation is not scaled from A to F; rather, each assignment is given either a pass grade, which translates to an A in final transcripts, or a fail grade which translates to an F.
The immediate fear of the pass/fail system is that work that may traditionally receive a middle grade - a C, for example - may either get the same grade as an exemplary work, or the same grade as a failing work, depending on the teacher's interpretation of the paper. Some students may see this as unfair. To remedy this fear, my teacher created a policy that said that if a paper was not up to the teacher's expectations (whatever that may mean...practically speaking, it's safe to say that this means in part that the paper would receive a failing grade on the pass/fail scale), then the student would have a chance to revise it and turn it back in for another chance at the pass grade. In fact, often times the teacher gave students multiple chances if he felt as though the revision was working towards the student's potential, but wasn't quite there yet.
Through this teacher's policy, we see where the pass/fail system shines.
- The pass/fail system encourages and rewards revision. Students who revise their papers before turning them in will not have to rework/redo papers, while students who struggled will have multiple chances (and feedback from their first turned-in paper) to improve their writing.
- As a result of having a fall-back in the form of an extra chance to revise, students felt more leeway in terms of what they could write about. As a result, there was an uptick in papers with unusual premises. Some papers even answered prompts with creative stories crafted by the students that echoed sentiments in whatever book we were reading at the time. This is a far cry from the five paragraph, thesis driven work that haunts every college English class I have been in.
- Students were happier. Not only could they write about what they want, but grades were extremely high. Most students ended up with an A, and those who ended up with an F were those who did not show up to classes, turn in papers on time, etc...There were some Bs and Cs, but those grades reflect blog participation and attendance.
I would like to see the pass/fail system used in more classes, especially 400+ level classes where those taking the class should be more into their field of choice. What do you all think of the pass/fail system? What are some cons to it that I have not outlined?