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Rethinking Grading

EPISODE #4: WHAT ABOUT THE OUTSIDE WORLD?

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Auto Insurance

  • Many insurance companies offer a good student discount.
  • 6 insurers confirmed that students who don’t get letter grades will still be eligible for these discounts.

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Employers

  • A survey went out to all co-op employers. 16 responded.
  • Interviewed 9 of the respondents:
    • 78% prefer words to percentages when grading students.
    • 100% are willing to pilot a new timecard that uses words.

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Anecdotally, several employers and parents/caregivers have shared that their own employee evaluations use words rather than percentages.

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Colleges and Universities

Interviewed 10 of the schools SST students apply to most often:

    • Bridgewater State University
    • Curry College
    • Johnson & Wales University
    • Mass. Maritime Academy
    • Southern New Hampshire U.
    • UMass – Amherst
    • UMass – Boston
    • UMass – Dartmouth
    • University of New Hampshire
    • Wentworth Institute of Technology

Attended a panel discussion on standards-based grading featuring the following:

    • Bridgewater State University
    • Bunker Hill Community College
    • Northeastern University
    • UMass – Amherst

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Interview Summary

All 10 schools said there’s no problem with a transcript that uses words and standards, as long as there’s a GPA.

    • 1 cautioned about using only three or four words.
    • 1 was excited about standards-based transcripts, because they give more information.
    • 1 said our system “seems like the best of both worlds,” because it focuses on learning while providing a fair GPA.

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Other College Information

  • Folks who were interviewed said about 5% of their transcripts are standards-based, and there’s been an uptick recently.
  • A counselor at another Massachusetts school shared that many colleges are designating an admissions officer to focus on non-traditional transcripts.
  • The NCAA ran this webinar in February of 2023 to show how they determine eligibility for students matriculating from schools with standards-based grading.

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The Big Takeaways

  • Representatives from insurance companies said there would be no problem with our students earning good driver discounts.
  • Co-op employers are interested, and some are excited about the new changes.
  • College personnel said our new grading system won’t have any negative impact on admissions, because we provide a GPA.

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Questions? Concerns?

jscopelleti@ssvotech.org

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781-878-8822 x. 317

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Rethinking Grading website