Student Government Association has conducted yet another survey in their attempt to rethink the plus/minus grading system used at OCU. This resolution has been led by SGA President Nic Rhodes even before becoming president.
The survey, composed of six free response questions, was designed to measure the student body’s opinion on the grading system that attaches pluses and minuses to a student’s letter grade. This survey is not the first sign of interest that SGA has shown in altering this system, but is to function as an additional mean of gauging the interest that the student body may have as well.
“I just wanted to open it up to free response to make sure we were getting the full breadth of opinion,” said Nic Rhodes, president of SGA. “We don’t want to make any recommendation to the school without the full support of the student body.”
With the help of Liz Willner, education professor, SGA was able to research the effects of the plus/minus grading system by plugging the grades of many OCU students into the non-plus/minus systems of other top-tier schools like University of Oklahoma and Oklahoma State University. After doing so, the test showed a significant increase in student GPAs across the board.
“If this is implemented, I’d hope that the system would positively affect peoples’ GPAs, and more correctly represent the effort they put toward their grades,” said Jeff Matthews, finance junior and SGA member.
The initiative to rethink the grading system began with Rhodes’ own personal experience. After being negatively affected by minuses on his letter grades, Rhodes turned to others to inquire and investigate whether or not they experienced the same problem. After finding that many did, that was when he turned to SGA as a means of solving the problem and improving the system.
“It’s basically been the sort of situation where, because I had an experience that was negatively affecting me, I decided to run with it, and now we’re here,” Rhodes said.
The data collected by the survey, after an open period of time to finish collecting all results, will then be exported into a spreadsheet and presented next semester, after which all of the student body’s responses and opinions will, if successful, be compiled.
Leave a Reply