Access to pass/fail grading was liberalized for courses designed to be delivered in-person but moved online due to social distancing caused by the COVID-19 pandemic at many universities in the spring 2020 semester. There was little research to inform liberalizing access to pass/fail grading as a tool to support student performance and persistence…

The pandemic has been an unprecedented disruption to the lives of college students and the operation of higher education institutions. Students' performance during the pandemic was likely influenced by the hardship they personally experienced, how easily they adapted to remote teaching (including technology access), and their professors' ability…

Online education continues to become an increasingly prominent part of higher education, but many students struggle in distance courses. For this reason, there has been considerable interest in predicting which students will succeed in online courses and which will receive poor grades or drop out prior to completion. Effective intervention depends…

Institutions of higher education commonly employ a conjunctive standard setting strategy, which requires students to resit failed examinations until they pass all tests. An alternative strategy allows students to compensate a failing grade with other test results. This paper uses regression discontinuity design to compare the effect of first-year…

When the safety of the public is at stake, it is particularly relevant for licensing and credentialing exam agencies to use defensible standard setting methods to categorize candidates into competence categories (e.g., pass/fail). The aim of this study was to gather evidence to support change to the Comprehensive Osteopathic Medical Licensing-USA…

This guide is designed to help adult educators and administrators better understand the content of the GED® test. This guide is tailored to each test subject and highlights the test's item types, assessment targets, and guidelines for how items will be scored. This 2016 edition has been updated to include the most recent information about the…

The inclusion of college preparation programs promote and forecast academic success in postsecondary studies among individual at-risk, African American urban high school students. Past research has shown ongoing, college acceptance, performance, and graduation gaps between at-risk, African American urban high school students when compared to…

Traditionally, medical schools have tended to make assumptions that students will "automatically" engage in self-education effectively after graduation and subsequent training in residency and fellowships. In reality, the majority of medical graduates out in practice feel unprepared for learning on their own. Many medical schools are now adopting…

Performance in a second-year course in pedodontics/orthodontics for three classes at the State University of New York at Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine who received grades under an honors/pass/fail system was compared to that of three academically comparable classes that received letter grades. (Author/MLW)

A study compared freshman medical student achievement and satisfaction under two grading schemes: a four-level grading plan (honors, high pass, pass, fail) with two examinations, and pass-fail with weekly quizzes. Under the latter system, students continued to perform well and reported greater satisfaction. (MSE)

First year students' academic performance in three Life Science courses (Botany, Zoology and Bioscience) was compared. Pass rates, as well as the means and distributions of final marks were analysed. Of the three components (coursework, practical and theory examinations) contributing to the final mark of each course, students performed best in the…

Addressing the trend in American colleges and universities to award constantly higher grades each year, New College of Hofstra University has been studying the grading patterns over the past years. Grades awarded during the academic year 1975-76 have not changed significantly. They remained at B level. The percent of grades in each grade category…

The results of a retrospective study of the psychiatry residency classes entering the University of California, San Francisco, School of Medicine between 1970 and 1975 show no significant difference in performance evaluations between residents in the graded and pass/fail groups. The two cohorts received almost identical overall grades. (JMD)

This study examined graduate student attitudes towards letter and pass/fail grading systems in the Law School and the School of Education in a selective university in the United States. Fifty-four students completed a questionnaire on goal orientations (ability comparison vs. mastery), amount of effort and stress in each of the two grading…

This article examines the relationship between grading systems and performance on national board examinations. The study demonstrates that board scores verify traditional grading as an indicator of student performance despite many variables; students who do well with traditional grades should do as well with national boards. (LBH)