I came across an interesting article by way of TownHall.com called "A For Effort, Not Achievement" about the recent decision of Benedict College (a historically black school) President, Dr. David H. Swinton to start the "Success Equals Effort" program or "SEE" which bases most of the freshman classes grades on effort rather than test scores and research papers. According to the article, many have said Dr. Swinton merely made official what many academic institutions have been doing for quite some time.

Being that TownHall.com is a conservative news service, I'm sure you can guess what they think of this. Why of course, it's "blasphemous" right? Well, no.

According to Dr. Michael Boatwright, who serves as the school's Director of Assessment & Research (see, we really can make up our own titles), this method of grading has "always happened", he states,

"When we went to school, we got part of our grade from class participation, part of it from attendance and part of it from homework."

I would concur.

The program has its opponents who say that decisions such as this pass students who lack basic rudimentary skills. Are we now in need of a "No Young Adult Left Behind" program too? Not quite sure. Although I'm not against "SEE" type grading, I can't say I agree with the rationale of Dr. Swinton who when asked what students would benefit from the program, answered,

"It would be a student who just never developed the work ethic and study habits and routines that's required to be successful in college."

Lofty and unfortunate rationale. Seems to me, these type of students in fact would NEED some discipline. I would however, argue that it benefits students who aren't great test-takers. Understand, I don't think grading for effort is appropriate in standardized fields of study. Dental school for example, would not be the place to grade on effort.

I've stated it ever so subtly in the past, but I'm not shouting from the stands in favor of standardized testing. The one major test I think needs to be done away with in part is the SAT. But that's another conversation.

Is it coincidental that a historically black college was used as the subject in this article? Probably not. I'll just go on record as saying there are quite a few predominately white schools that have been doing this for years. We'll see where this goes.

Posted by Ambra at September 8, 2004 9:56 AM in Education