Show Student Page 6 Life Monthly Review Cover story continued However registrars attending the conference at which the findings were distributed agreed that they could live with almost any system for which there existed an accompanying explanation of how the GPA system compared to the widely-useWould written evaluations oral exams letters of recommendation and other alternative evaluation methods convey the necessary information to an employer or admissions department? At the same time would they remove some of the ambiguity that exists as the result of assigning one letter grade to the student's entire performance? Pragmatists immediately point to the need for increased personalization in order for that suggestion to work For example how would a professor with 200 students in one class alone become closely associated enough with each student to enable him to submit such an d Since students now have control over most aspects of their educational lives grading should have ceased to be punitive device Unfortunately reluctance on the part of professors to adapt to this new educational climate have prolonged its demise evaluation? questionable whether the present system contributes to creditability Students who perform lend creditability to insitutions and the A or B on the transcript simply does not guarantee that the student has an exceptional grasp of the techniques theories or principles or that he can transfer that knowledge to the field of performance This approach seems to be leading to the real reason for the problems that keep cropping up with respect to policy and the aggravations of administration Do grades really serve the process of It seems education? A hundred years or so ago the courts stated that the educational institution was like a parent and could use the authority parents legally with the implication that the students while on a campus remained as children in relationship to the institution As long as a student remained in school an institution could exercise what control it wanted The issuance of grades became a tool for student control Grading took the role of reward or punishment depending upon how the student reacted to the authority of the institution Since World War II however this concept has been questioned Reasons for this are stated in the grading policy proposal : "Expanded enrollments increase of public financial support cultural pluralism and nationally identified research combined to to invade the campus allow the student-citize"With the parental legal theory destroyed the students came to the campus as citizens with all their constitutional rights "Armed with citizenship they were no longer the victims of faculty design They became clients consumers customers to be pleased with purposes and interests of their own" Since students now have control over most aspects of their educational lives qradinq should have ceased to be a punitive device Unfortunately reluctance on the part of professors to adapt to this new educational climate and an unwillingness on the part of students to pursue their opportunities have prolonged its demise Should a student be forced to live with a grade which may reflect a teacher's dissatisfaction with his acceptance of the proferred n material? Because live with it he must According to Robson once that D or F or goes on a student's transcript it remains there Karl Lambert the school registrar explained the present procedure that exists for changing grades that are on a student's transcript If a student receives an "I" due to failure to do a sufficient amount of work for the teacher to assign a grade he has 15 months to complete the assignment During that time he must request that the instructor fill out a card that is obtained in the office of Admissions and Records and file for the grade change If approved the on the transcript has a slash drawn through it and the new grade is posted with an explanatory note In the case of other grades if the student discovers the mistake before the grade is posted he completes the same adjustments on I I student records card However if he desires to change an that has existed for longer than 15 months or a grade that has been posted the student must obtain from his advisor a Petition for Academic Record Adjustment I w anu appruvea anows Tor me the student's transcript usually for a fee which eliminatesreTypir the et Both these procedures were designed to allow for correction of mistakes that might occur during the grading process If a stui simply retakes a class the new grade is placed at the bottom of transcript with a note explaining that the course has been retaken flul pMd by - “ ' tn i ' tha! while boh Procedures were origin errors' enou9h flexibility is maintai toll otlferof thefnrmV dfh Wlhany grading problem by using one or grade was an errorTand can be proven tc ' I I -- — - — - - I r comrn |