Hi,
We grade Seminar as a letter grade as there are written assignments and regular class meetings. We grade the internship as Pass/Fail based on the completion of hours and a passing evaluation. The reason we grade P/F for the internship are:
* We want the focus to be on growth and feedback. We use a 10 point scale, and don't expect students to be at 9s or 10s in their first couple quarters. Even in their final quarter, we want students to view their rating as indication of growth, so we didn't want to tie them to a grade. Having a rating of 6, for example, in one competency area doesn't mean that they are failing all of field, it simply means that either they've shown a lot of growth from previous quarters in that specific area, and/or it means they have a specific area for growth still. We like to focus on the feedback and showing students that graduate school will prepare them with the base level of expected competency, and then they will continue to grow and learn continuously post graduation. We consider ratings of 1-2 to be failing ratings.
* There is no way to have inter-rater reliability with field evaluations, so letter grades would be so subjective.
Thanks,
Aneesha
------------------------------
Aneesha Bharwani
Assistant Dean for Field Education, Associate Professor of the Practice
University of Denver
Denver CO
------------------------------
Original Message:
Sent: Apr 12, 2022 18:48
From: Sarah Featherly
Subject: Grading practicum
Hello again colleagues,
I am also seeking information on the way in which schools are grading their field education program (practicum and seminar). We currently use a pass/fail grading structure, and are curious if there are schools who use a GPA grading structure for their practicum program. We are exploring the pros/cons of moving from a pass/fail structure to a GPA structure when grading and was hoping to learn from schools who may already use a GPA when grading practicum.
Thank you for any information, input, or examples you are able to share with us.
Warmly,
S.
------------------------------
Sarah Featherly
Director of Field Education
Eastern Washington University
Cheney WA
------------------------------