Michigan Students Count Way to a College A

University of Michigan professors award many more A's under new grading system.

At the University of Michigan campus in Ann Arbor, about 8,000 students have earned their ordinary course grades in an unusual way. They start out the semester with a zero, but each has the opportunity to earn an A by racking up points. The professor determines how many points each assignment or test is worth, and there's various ways to get to an A. If students botch an assignment, they can try something else. Each student can track his or her point tally online and see options for earning more points.

Since developing this system, named "GradeCraft," five years ago with two colleagues, education professor Barry Fishman gleefully admits he's awarding many more A's. He estimates that he's doling out A's to 80 percent of his students now compared with 50 percent or 60 percent beforehand. But, he claims, his students are working a lot harder.

"Colleagues say I'm not rigorous enough," said Fishman. "I think rigor should be about how challenging the material is, not how hard it is to achieve a certain outcome."