We believe that the grades on a student’s transcript should provide concise and meaningful information about the student’s achievements. Discussions taking place over the last two years suggest that the current grading scheme is not completely satisfactory. To increase the durability of any agreed-upon grading scheme, and to improve the information content of student transcripts, we propose that, beginning with courses taken in the Fall 2005 semester, the Registrar be instructed to modify the transcript of every student as follows.

For each course in which a student receives a letter grade, the transcript will add to the information that is now presented, 1) the mean numerical grade of all students; and 2) the number of students who received letter grades. A typical entry on a transcript might then take the form
 

Index code	Course title	Student grade	Course mean	Number of students
01:160:127	Impact of Chemistry	B+ (3.5)	3.1	73

In this example the transcript shows that the student received an above-average grade in a medium-sized class. The letter grade is shown because this is current practice. For ease of interpretation, we would prefer that numerical student grades be added as has been done parenthetically in our example. If the transcript were to be presented without the conversion, then a chart converting letters to numbers would be required. Standard deviations of the mean or a percentile corresponding to the student’s grade could also be given, but here we run the risk of overkill.

Our proposal would add substantive, useful information to the transcript at virtually no administrative cost. It would help Rutgers undergraduates by giving them more complete feedback regarding their performance, and by making it easier for external readers to recognize outstanding performance, particularly in courses or disciplines where average grades are low. Implementation of this proposal would be relatively easy because all the information required is already available electronically to the registrar.

Although aggregated grades have been stable at Rutgers, New Brunswick for some years (see attached table), we believe that our proposal would help mitigate any future grade inflation or deflation. As a final note, we believe that the proposed method for recording grades will express to the larger public Rutgers’ commitment to fair and informative student assessment.