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Making the (Letter) Grade: The Incentive Effects of Mandatory Pass/Fail Courses / Kristin Butcher, Patrick McEwan, Akila Weerapana.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Butcher, Kristin.
- Series:
- Working Paper Series (National Bureau of Economic Research) no. w30798.
- NBER working paper series no. w30798
- Language:
- English
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource: illustrations (black and white);
- Other Title:
- Making the
- Place of Publication:
- Cambridge, Mass. National Bureau of Economic Research 2022.
- Summary:
- In Fall 2014, Wellesley College began mandating pass/fail grading for courses taken by first-year, first-semester students, although instructors continued to record letter grades. We identify the causal effect of the policy on course choice and performance, using a regression-discontinuity-in-time design. Students shifted to lower-grading STEM courses in the first semester, but did not increase their engagement with STEM in later semesters. Letter grades of first-semester students declined by 0.13 grade points, or 23% of a standard deviation. We evaluate causal channels of the grade effect--including sorting into lower-grading STEM courses and declining instructional quality--and conclude that the effect is consistent with declining student effort.
- Notes:
- Print version record
- December 2022.
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