The University of Michigan recently announced that starting in fall 2027, first-semester grades for first-year students in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts will be reported as pass/no credit. Letter grades will still be recorded internally, but external audiences will only see whether or not credit was earned.
The university has framed the experiment as an aid to help first-year students adjust to the demands of college, giving them space to experiment without worrying about a grade point average.
This has triggered the ire of some, including Neetu Arnold of the Manhattan Institute, who posted on social media that the move was an indicator of lack of college preparation and that this lowering of standards was a sign of larger institutional rot.
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