Response to the new plus/minus grading system seems as varied as the grades to be awarded this semester.
The new grading system was implemented this semester after 13 years of consideration.
"It allows both students and faculty to have a more refined way to assess performance," said Ruth Jones, vice provost of Academic Programs and one sponsor of the program's implementation team. "Many of our peers have a plus/minus system, and that commonality is useful."
The plus/minus system was approved in July 2003 and adds an A+, A-, B+, B- and C+ to the previous grading scale. The A+ was added in May 2003 to balance the A- and allow a student to receive a 4.33 internal ASU GPA.
But the overall GPA will be capped at 4.0 on official transcripts, after administrators learned that other schools with 4.0 grading scales might try to align ASU's scale with theirs, causing a drop in students' GPAs. For example, a 3.0 GPA could register as a 2.67 with other schools.
Not all ASU instructors are required to use the new system; they have the choice whether to use it.
Jones said it is no different from a teacher deciding to grade on a bell curve.
She said the new system isn't one that should bring anxiety.
"I don't understand what the concern is," Jones said.
Some colleges at ASU have implemented the system for all instructors in their departments to use.
Others, such as the Professional Nursing Program, are choosing not to use the plus/minus system.
Barbara Fargotstein, a clinical associate professor in the nursing college, said professors are bypassing the new system in order to make the nursing program more consistent.
In addition, Fargotstein said she hopes it will put more of a focus on learning course material.
"To be consistent throughout, each individual professor concluded that they wouldn't be using the plus/minus system because the emphasis is on the knowledge and not the grade," she said.
Some schools decided to implement the program with all professors, including the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication and the W.P. Carey School of Business Marketing.
Daniel Canary, professor in the Hugh Downs School, feels that the new system is one that can only benefit students.
"It's just amazing to me that students would be concerned because the use of the plus/minus allows the teacher to give a student more credit for his or her work," Canary said. "There is a positive bias built in. It is the most generous system I've seen."
Nursing sophomore Liz Falcone agreed.
"I think it should be used because it will help raise GPAs," Falcone said. "It will help drive the students [to do better]."
Cledwyn Jones, a student representative in the plus/minus system's implementation team, remains opposed to the way the program eventually turned out.
He argues that while he is glad for the addition of the A+ into the grading scheme, the absence of a C- only inflates student grades.
"The system is skewed, pluses and minuses aren't present at every level ... [The system] is generous to the point where it's institutional grade inflation," Cledwyn Jones said. "I think that reflects poorly on our University. We could have blazed a new trail but instead we went with this skewed system."
He added that he supported another proposal that would have awarded students' grades based on a plus/minus system, but would not have included them in the overall GPA. Instead, the pluses and minuses would be shown on student transcripts so that other institutions would be able to accurately assess a student's progress.
"Students would have the best of both worlds," Cledwyn Jones said.
Ruth Jones recognizes that change is always hard at first.
"I think that, as with everything new, there will be some bumps in the road, but overall there has been a wonderful team of people involved to make this [change] go as smoothly as possible," Jones said.
Reach the reporter at rkost@asu.edu.
