TO THE EDITOR:
Mark Lihn’s February 15 article (“UNC readies for contextual grading”) highlights some of the supposed benefits of UNC’s new “contextual grading” system, formerly known as the “achievement index.”
They include that instructors will feel more comfortable giving lower grades and that students will be less likely to seek out “easy classes.”
However, the article omits the costs to students of listing the grade distributions for the courses on their transcripts.
For instance, this new system will punish students who take classes in which their instructors work hard to ensure that students master the material and work together, and in which many students achieve high grades as a result.
Consequently, the new system will discourage students from helping each other to master the material.
Instead, what the system will promote is more competition and anxiety among students about grades.
As an undergraduate, the courses in which I learned the most were those in which the professor demanded a lot and encouraged students to work together, and in which the students were inspired and everyone did well.
Those are the classes I remember the most and the A’s that mattered most.
