For most of our academic lives we the students have had to deal with seeing plus/minus grades on our report cards. It wasn’t until we got to Skyline College that this all changed. On our final grades those A- minuses get raised to A’s and those F’s stay F’s. This topic of plus/ minus grading has been brought to the table by our sister school College of San Mateo. CSM is all for the idea, but they need us and Canada to support the idea before it’s imposed on us the students. Most colleges follow this policy, but in order for it to affect the students of Skyline College, all three colleges in the San Mateo school district need to agree and make it a district wide policy.
We at the Skyline View disagree with this policy for a number of reasons, the obvious being our precious GPA’s. Our futures should not be determined by a plus or minus in front of our grade. Does it really reflect a student’s intelligence or study habits? Is a student who receives a B+, smarter than a student with a B-? We think not! Believe us we feel for the student that thinks if you earn a plus grade then it should be present on your report card. But what about that student that studied just as hard, if not harder and had a brain fart on an exam. Should they be condemned to a minus grade that will forever follow and haunt them?
“Having a plus/minus system isn’t where we should concentrate our efforts. We should be concentrating our efforts on effectively assessing students learning. How do students know what they know?” said Academic Senate Vice President, Ray Hernandez
Skyline’s Academic Senate is conflicted with the topic, in a meeting that was held March 28, plus/minus grading was discussed, but no decision was made. Skyline’s faculty is not compelled to make a decision just yet, instead they are interested in what the students think. Remember that old saying, telling us not to fix something until it’s broken. We at the Skyline View, think there are bigger issues in the world our school should worry about. Like, is Oprah ever going to get married?