University of Michigan Drops First-Semester Grades to 'Curb Mental Health Crisis' (axios.com)
- Reference: 0184946998
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/08/13/0433248/university-of-michigan-drops-first-semester-grades-to-curb-mental-health-crisis
- Source link: https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2026/08/11/umich-freshmen-first-semester-grades
> U-M's College of Literature, Science and the Arts [3]plans to replace first-semester letter grades on freshmen's transcripts with pass/no-credit marks, tentatively beginning in fall 2027. Professors would still assign grades, but they wouldn't appear on external transcripts or count toward students' GPAs.
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> U-M says the idea, known as "grade covering," could help students adjust to college, take academic risks and " [4]embrace the joy of learning ." University spokesperson Chris Sebastian tells Axios that LSA faculty, staff and students will continue shaping the pilot, with more details to come this fall.
"While I am sure that there is some pressure on freshman students, one of the best ways of dealing with pressure is enduring it and overcoming it, not attempting to shield people from it," comments Ol Olsoc.
[1] https://www.axios.com/local/detroit/2026/08/11/umich-freshmen-first-semester-grades
[2] https://slashdot.org/~Ol+Olsoc
[3] https://lsa.umich.edu/lsa/academics/lsa-first-semester-grade-covering-pilot-program.html
[4] https://record.umich.edu/articles/lsa-explores-new-grade-covering-pilot-to-support-first-year-students/
the solution to "the mental health crisis" (Score:4, Insightful)
...is not found in avoiding the problem.
You are here to educate these kids. This is your role.
Granted, these issues should have been addressed long before COLLEGE but the idea of entering supposed 'adulthood' without the mental armor to deal with things like "being rated for your performance" is...asinine.
STOP WRAPPING PEOPLE IN BUBBLE WRAP. You are not doing them favors, you are just kicking their mental health issues down the road (while exacerbating them, most likely) for someone else to deal with.
Re: (Score:2)
It crazy, some people will want to protect kids from literally everthing and then expect them to wake up one morning magically equipped to deal with the world.
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> It crazy, some people will want to protect kids from literally everthing and then expect them to wake up one morning magically equipped to deal with the world.
This helps lead to adults that crave authoritarianism because they think some "parent" needs to solve the crises of living for them. There are those of us who have seen this coming since the "never tell a child no" trend started some thirty plus years ago, and have been wondering if society will wake up to the idea that raising children involves teaching them how to deal with reality, not just softening every blow until they move out, then wondering why they aren't equipped to handle living on their own.
I r
grade inflation is / was an issue also tech the te (Score:3)
grade inflation is / was an issue also tech the test as well cram tests where you can get an good grade but have little to no grip on the content.
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That sounds like an issues with the tests, not the grades.
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About the only thing I can see here as far as this being helpful is the fact that a lot of students depending on what their primary education was actually like are surprised by how much higher the bar at University might be.
So getting a D after being in some HS where they hand out As as participation trophies might be rather shocking. So being able to go ok 'well this one does not really count I still passed' does afford that student who
1) simply cares about getting high marks
2) needs to keep a scholarship
3
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It's only one semester, and a semester of the least important material of their university time.
I think this actually sounds decent, giving the students an adjustment window, preserve the ability to completely fail if they really bomb out, and still the majority of their university years count for real and around the material people will actually care about in the real world.
If I am looking at a new college grad and give any weight to GPA, I won't care if that GPA excludes the sorts of classes they would ha
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Yeah, my question is if we don't assess the students, are they learning? Will there be more students enrolled the second year, paying for an education, when they are actually already lacking the fundamentals to succeed in the second year because they were never evaluated?
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This is a result of COVID stunting kid's growth. It was a one off (hopefully) event that wasn't handled well from a development and mental health perspective.
Now they have identified the issue they need to triage it, which is what this is, but also look at helping those kids recover.
More generally there is more pressure on kids these days. They didn't used to have to take on 5 or 6 figures of debt to get an education that is basically mandatory to do even entry level clerical jobs these days. An 18 year old
Re: the solution to "the mental health crisis" (Score:2)
The system that prepares students for college is no longer functioning properly. This is about giving unprepared students a soft landing, so hopefully they can adapt and avoid dropping out early.
Re: the solution to "the mental health crisis" (Score:2)
I was still 17 years old when I started university and emotionally immature. It would have been nice to have a bit of a "get out of jail free" card for those first few months as I acclimated to independence.
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I dunno, I got effortless straight As in HS and then in college started hitting C+s off the bat and had to learn to study and so on, it could be demoralizing for some students in a way this ameliorates so long as they are still getting some good, hard feedback as to what they need to adjust to succeed.
New college graduates are worthless (Score:1)
We need a new system to verify competence because a degree won't cut it in a couple of decades. Maybe there should be private academies that give technical certificates that employers can evaluate on an individual basis. The universities are not fixing the problem, we need something else to verify that you're hiring a competent adult and not a 27 year old child who can't handle the pressure of a written exam.
Easy times make weak people.... (Score:1)
We've had easy times for too long. Everything thinks little stuff is hard. Everyone thingk unimportant stuff is important.
Bachelors of Maga (Score:1)
It won't matter. We're destroying our universities anyway.
In a decade folks will get their pass/fail participation trophy by correctly answering questions like, "Should Americans be more thankful to Jesus or Don Trump for their record breaking average salaries of $16000/year for only 72 hours labor per week?"
It will qualify them to whip productivity out of their inferiors so long as the report enough subversives each week.
Maximize tuition payments. (Score:3)
Great way to delay students dropping out and be able to extract more tuition.
There are two kinds of students (Score:2)
Those who love to learn and eagerly and diligently study subjects they have talent for. These students mostly don't need grades, as the have an internal assessment of their progress.
Other students see a diploma as a golden ticket to wealth. They don't care about hard work or learning, all they care about is the diploma. They slouch through college, putting in minimum effort, socializing, binge drinking and cheating on exams. They treat grades as just another part of the game and use every trick they can to
*looks at the previous story* (Score:2)
Have they considered giving the students some magic mushrooms?
The fallout of compulsory education (Score:2)
Our system of compulsory education does a truly remarkable job of stripping the joy of learning from students early and thoroughly. I'm a high school teacher and at the beginning of each semester, I survey each of my classes to see which students want to be there. Almost none of them do, even the high-performing ones. Making education (or anything) an obligation is very effective for framing it as such, instead of an opportunity.
I think it may be a good idea... (Score:3)
I think this might be a good idea, because getting a 4.0 GPA can be a lot different than actually mastering the material. However, the potential for abuse is present as well.
It would be nice though -- one could focus on material, not just trying to memorize via rote to copy/paste from memory to a test, then after the final is over, everything is forgotten.
It isn't perfect, but it can be tuned. Perfect is the enemy of the good.
Re: I think it may be a good idea... (Score:3)
Me, too. I'm going to start masking out my employee's pay stubs so they won't get depressed or angry.
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Ah I remember getting my first paycheck from my first job. What a gut-punch.
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First year first semester schedule is going to be 1 or maybe 2 classes in their majors (if they have even picked one yet) and the rest are 101 level breadth requirements anyway so I don't see an issue with it. Plus as incoming freshmen there is usually a lot of other stuff going on so it helps with the adjustment period.