La Voz

Paul Setziol presented his opinions regarding plus/minus grading before the Board of Governors in Sacramento and was the principal author of a paper regarding plus/minus grades issued by the District Academic Senate for California Community Colleges.

Setziol, who is a music department faculty member at De Anza College, believes that if plus and minus grades are to be implemented, and 400 points, for example, was the threshold for an A grade while using only base letter grades, "either you are raising standards or you're being illogical if you then say that now 400 points is not an A but it's an A minus."

If an instructor decides to raise his or her standards, then that would take place without the adding of plus/minus grades to the mix.

Assuming the instructor is not raising standards in the classroom, "if 400 was an A, it - should still be an A and then 370 [for example] should become the A minus."

Currently, a certain amount of effort is required to earn each respective base letter grade and "there's nothing inherent in the system of plusses and minuses to say that there should be any change in that whatsoever."

Though Setziol favors this "standards" system, there is one circumstance that would leave students with a lower grade than they would receive in the "illogical" grading format.

Again, assuming 400 points is the threshold for an A and 370 is that of an A minus, a student with a total of 380 would likely receive an A minus, whereas, "in the previous system-it's possible that [380] might have been generously rounded up."

But Setziol is confi dent that the number of such scenarios would be "very, very small." "If you have a class of 40, there might be one student who hits that spot," he said.

The main message that Setziol would like to convey is that students should stand up and, in a polite and non-confrontational manner, say "if it was worth an A before, it should be worth an A now. If it was worth a B before, it should be worth a B now. An A minus is not an A. A B minus is not a B."

Ultimately, Setziol believes that those students who have their mind completely set on achieving a 4.0 GPA will adapt and get the A's that they strive for.

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