Assigning Letter Grades to Classes Within the Department

Dear all,

    It has come to our attention that some of you religiously follow the “recommended” grade distribution curve. Please note that according to the University Regulations, as described here, “Grades in any course, examination or other academic assessment shall not be mandated on the basis of a curve or historic distribution of student grades.” You can read Samer’s opinion on this topic. Indeed, the University policy on Grading Procedure states that historical mean grades “…are inappropriate to use for small classes, and must not ever be applied rigidly even in large classes.”

It is difficult, even for seasoned instructors, to choose a fair letter grade distribution. Use your best judgement and common sense to decide how the marks will correspond to letter grades.  We are striving for meaningful, fair assessments of performance. According to the University’s Assessment and Grading Policy, Grades reflect judgements of student achievement. These judgements are based on a combination of absolute achievement and relative performance in a class.”

The University policy on Grading Procedure states “There will be no pre-determined quota of letter grades in a course.” There is nothing wrong to assign many As or A+s if students get top marks in the course; we should not apply a “curve” to bring the average down to comply with some “recommended” distribution.  Or the reverse, if the majority of students have low marks they should get many Cs or C-s, and we should not artificially grade them up just because the typical average of a class should be B+, for instance.   For any questions, talk to one of us 

Clarity is key. Communicate to your students how the term marks will be translated into a final letter grade. According to the Calendar’s “Evaluation Procedures and Grading System“, the syllabus should include: “the process by which the term marks will be translated into a final letter grade for the course.” This process is expected to be consistent with the University Assessment and Grading Policy and the Grading Procedure. It is highly recommended that you share samples of grading scale (i.e. letter grade cut-offs) for your course in the first lecture and explain to students that various factors might lead to slight deviation from the provided grading scale, allowing some flexibility when assigning the final grade. Additionally, you should always define the criteria for failing in a course. Establishing these expectations at the outset provides some clarity to students and helps prevent potential misunderstandings or conflicts that might arise.

Regards,

Samer, Amy, and Zaher