The transition from high school into college can be a difficult and stressful one for many students fresh out of their senior high school year. Even students who received relatively high marks in high school can struggle during their freshmen year, as they adjust to a new schedule and rigorous course work.
That is why some colleges have adopted “shadow” or “covered” grades for freshmen, which means that first semester freshmen grades are privately shared with students, but never appear on their transcripts. This practice is the result of concerned faculty and administrators who believe that the stress of passing courses will distract students from the true objective of college — real learning.
In addition to “shadow grades,” some colleges, such as the University of Minnesota, offer pass/fail core classes if a student does not wish to be on the A-F grading system. Letter grading is believed to cause more stress to students, especially freshmen.
However, some schools have found that “shadow grading” and P/F courses don’t necessarily work as they’re intended.
In 1971, John Hopkins University adopted a “covered grade” policy to help students transition into the rigorous academic environment. However, with the creation of more student services over the years, the Academic Council reassessed the policy and announced that the university will repeal it, effective fall 2017.
Beverly J. Wendland, dean of the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, and Ed Schlesinger, dean of the Whiting School of Engineering, explained the change to students.
“[Professors] say that too often covered grades merely delay development of study skills and adaptation to college-level work,” the deans wrote in an email to students. “At the same time, covered grades negatively impact students who perform well as first-semester freshmen.”
Amy Vollmer, chair and longtime professor of microbiology at Swarthmore College, disagrees with John Hopkins’ decision and believes that grades and learning are two different things. “We feel like taking the pressure off of grades helps turns the focus on the process of learning,” she said.
The problem is that without an A-F grading system, “shadow grades” and P/F courses can make it difficult to track just how much learning is occurring amongst students.
Some students spoke before the Academic Council, and argued that the absence of “shadow grading” may have a negative effect on other students who may arrive on campus “less college-ready” than peers.
However, if colleges are interested in encouraging “real learning,” they cannot ignore that adjusting to a new and challenging situation where “shadow grading” is not an option may be the best lesson for incoming freshmen to learn.
