“Our standards are high, but I don’t grade any differently because of them. C work is C work, and A work is A work,” says Gary Bouchard, professor of English. “For freshmen, it may be a shock because they can only compare the experience with high school. Once they adjust, they learn they must do above average work to earn an above average grade.”

Mariyan Yanikiev, a first-year student from Bulgaria, attests to that. “You need to be prepared for every lesson and involved in every class. It’s a long-term commitment—not just cramming for exams.”

Some on campus believe the freshman year may contribute to students’ lower GPAs. While some institutions allow students to take remedial and survey courses as an introduction to higher education, Saint Anselm students are launched into a challenging humanities program, “Portraits of Human Greatness.” Here they are asked to confront the questions of value, moral choice, and the significance of human life. 

What’s in a grade?
According to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, grades are intended to be an objective index of the degree of academic mastery of a subject. They inform students about how well they understand the content of their courses. They give students insight into their strengths, weaknesses, and areas of talent—which may be helpful in making career decisions. Grades also provide information to employers and graduate schools.

Grading practice, however, sometimes blurs the distinction between hard work and achievement. In addition to mastery of subject, more subjective factors like effort and improvement are often considered. Students may fail to realize that hard work is not the same as quality results.“Our job is not only to teach students, but also to evaluate what they gained from the course,” explains David Guerra, professor of physics. “We need to set the bar at an appropriate level so as to challenge our students, but not too high so they fail.”

Guerra believes faculty must create courses with papers, quizzes, tests, and projects that challenge students to analyze and synthesize the critical concepts and fundamental knowledge in the course. It’s important that the assessment tools be varied because not all students process and retrieve information the same way.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9