It has recently come to our attention that the University faculty is considering a modification to the grading system that would add pluses and minuses to the present system. While it is the responsibility of the current faculty, students and administration to make decisions about modifications to the curriculum, as former Brown students who led the student team that initiated the New Curriculum and as proud parents of current Brown students, we write to express our disappointment about the possibility of this change.
We can see no way in which adding additional categories to the grading system will promote a richer educational experience for students. On the contrary, it runs counter to the principles that Brown endorsed when the present curriculum was adopted by encouraging unhealthy competition and putting increased emphasis on a subjective measure which communicates very little that is of educational value to a student.
The purpose of evaluation in the Brown curriculum is to help provide feedback to students in specific ways that help them to learn and improve. That is why detailed evaluations that help a student understand what he or she does well and where improvement is needed are preferred to single letters that communicate very little of educational value. A focus on letter grades promotes an ethic where achieving the grade, rather than learning, becomes the goal.
The New Curriculum recognized this and encouraged fuller evaluations. An option for students to choose to have grades in particular courses was provided in addition to full evaluations because students might need these in some courses in order to satisfy the entrance requirements of graduate and professional schools, not because they had any intrinsic merit.
By adding pluses and minuses, the Brown faculty would not only go directly against the spirit and principles of the Brown curriculum but would do so emphatically by providing even more emphasis on letter grades and even finer and finer distinctions among students. This would come, potentially, at great cost to the educational experience and to the relationship between students and faculty members and among students.
Surveys of Brown alums invariably find that they value their Brown education greatly and that the curriculum is a major reason for their positive evaluation. Why initiate a change that runs directly counter to the curriculum that makes Brown so unique and that so many students and alums value? We do not believe that anyone can seriously argue that adding a plus or a minus to letter grades will improve the educational experience.
We want to make clear that we are not opposed to changes in the curriculum. We strongly urged more than 35 years ago that Brown review the curriculum on a regular basis so that it could adapt to changed circumstances. We believe a robust debate about evaluation and its place in the learning process would be very healthy. However, we have heard no argument that convinces us that adding pluses and minuses would improve the educational experience for learners or teachers.
We strongly urge the Brown faculty not to take this regressive step.
Ira Magaziner '69 and Elliot Maxwell '68 led the student initiative to create the New Curriculum.
