School of Education

The following grading policy has been adopted for graduate courses in the School of Education:

• A = Outstanding achievement. Unusually complete command of the course content; exceptionally high level of scholarship.
• A- = Excellent achievement. Very thorough command of course content; very high level of scholarship.
• B+ = Very good achievement. Thorough command of course material.
• B = Good achievement. Solid, acceptable performance.
• B- = Fair achievement. Acceptable performance.
• C+ = Not wholly satisfactory achievement. Marginal performance on some aspects of the course requirements.
• C = Marginal achievement. Minimally acceptable performance on course assignments.
• C- = Unsatisfactory achievement. Inadequate knowledge of course content. (Courses with a grade of C- or lower may not be counted in graduate programs.)

Pass/Fail Grading (P/F)

Pass/Fail grading allows students who earn any grade from an A to a D in a course to have a grade of P recorded on their transcript. The P grade is not averaged in the GPA. Courses taken under the Pass/Fail grading option may not be included in graduate degree programs.

Satisfactory/Fail Grading (S/F)

Courses graded Satisfactory/Fail (S/F) are not the same as courses graded Pass/Fail (P/F). S/F grading is applied to all students in a class. Only a few graduate courses, including some workshop courses and thesis courses, are eligible for S/F grading. A grade of F is included in the GPA, but a grade of S does not affect GPA. For both pass/fail and satisfactory/fail grading, a memo is required from the instructor showing that a grade of B or better would have been issued to the student for the course. Without this memo the course will not be counted toward a degree program.

Incomplete Course Work (I)

A grade of Incomplete may be assigned when, at the end of the term, a student has not completed all course work. This grade may be given only when the completed work is of passing quality. If the course work has been completed, but is of poor quality, a grade of I may not be given. Incomplete is not to be used as a mechanism for deferring a low grade. Unfinished course work must be completed within one calendar year from the date the grade of I is assigned. The course must ordinarily be completed with the original course instructor. The instructor then files a Removal of Incomplete form and assigns a letter grade. Incomplete grades that are not removed within one year are changed to a grade of F. This change occurs automatically unless the director of graduate studies receives and approves a petition for extension from the course instructor.

Students may not reenroll in a course in which they have a grade of I.

Deferred Grading (R)

An R, indicating that the grade has been deferred, may be assigned in thesis and dissertation courses, internship courses, and a few other selected courses where work is expected to take longer than one year to complete. The Education Records Office maintains a list of courses approved for R grading. Unlike a grade of I, a grade of R does not automatically change to an F.

Withdrawal from Courses (W and WF)

Withdrawal from enrollment in a course during the drop/add period (in the first week of each term) is not recorded on a student's transcript. Withdrawal after this time is recorded as a W on the student's transcript. During the first quarter of each term, students may withdraw without instructor consent. After this date instructor approval is required. If a student is failing at the time of withdrawal, or simply discontinues attending the class, a grade of WF (withdrawal with failure) is assigned. This is treated as an F in grade point averaging. Near the end of the term withdrawal is not allowed at all, except in cases where a student is withdrawing from all classes. See Schedule of Classes for pertinent dates.