In the midst of a global pandemic, students have been robbed of a normal school year. External pressures and stress have impacted the way many learn. With this in mind, DU should give students the option to change the grade for every class to pass or fail. This is in opposition to the fall quarter accommodation where students could only choose one class to convert to pass/fail.
According to the National Library of Medicine, students who were given the option of a pass or fail grade in the Mayo Medical School were less stressed, had greater group cohesion with fellow students in their year and felt better emotionally than students receiving letter grades.
A common misconception of the pass/fail grading system is that it grants leeway for students to slack off. On the contrary—it helps students engage more in class without the added pressure of a letter grade.
“When pass and fail are the only options, it allows the grader to focus on learning and growth, while students have more opportunities to try, mess up and improve without feeling that everything is lost or their GPA is ruined,” said David Perry, a professor at the University of Minnesota.
The pandemic has added unnecessary worries to students, and DU should strive to alleviate the put-on pressure. Current second-year, Maelah Robinson-Castillo said, “I think they should allow students to have the pass/fail option because everyone’s situation is different. The pandemic didn’t just end in the spring—we are still living through it!”
Further accommodations need to be made for students during these hard times. The current grading policies issued by DU are not enough to help students achieve success. Second-year transfer student Isabel Ruiz said, “I believe students should have the opportunity to make at least half of their classes pass/fail, if not more.”
A pass/fail option for all classes will take into consideration the struggles students may have with learning information on a video call platform. According to the New York Times, learning on platforms such as Zoom can be extremely difficult for students’ brains to process. Issues with internet connections, lagging, screen freezes or bad audio can cause unease. Students can become distracted and have a hard time focusing.
Across the nation, students are struggling to maintain their GPAs, failing to move on to the next grade level and not graduating on time. School districts, such as Palm Beach County School District, have started giving parents the option to send their students back to in-person learning. This is due to the large number of students who have reported struggling with their online courses. Around 22,000 students from this district reported having trouble learning online.
The pandemic has greatly impacted DU students’ ability to engage with and learn in an educational environment. Better accommodations are needed. Only being granted the ability to convert one class to a pass/fail grade is not enough to counteract the added stress on students. The grading policy needs to be changed in order to ensure that students can succeed in this difficult situation.
