After four years of experimenting with a pass/fail grading system, the social psychology class will return to a conventional letter-grading system next year. The social psych teachers are looking to see more effort out of students and reward that effort with letter grades.

“Four years ago Ms. Blandpied and Ms. Peacock came to us about trying a pass/fail system for social psych, and we trusted their judgment,” assistant principal Karyn Shipp said. “Then they came to us again this year and we’re going to trust them again.”

Social psychology teachers Karen Blandpied and Anne Aldridge-Peacock wanted to experiment with an ungraded class in a grade-focused school like Piedmont.

“We were both curious about what would happen if there were no grades,” Blandpied said. “Would kids still do the work?”

Blandpied also felt that using letter grades could sometimes detract from the point of the class, which is thoughtfulness about oneself and others.

“Another thing that was difficult was that we got essays that were really personal,” Blandpied said. “How do you give a person an A or a B or another grade when they’ve just really explored a topic that’s personal?”

Blandpied said that in some ways, the pass/fail method seemed to work, such as taking some pressure off of students.

“I had a student once who was really struggling with her bit [a short presentation and discussion on a topic of the student’s choice]. She had to come in to see me four or five times and talk it through,” Blandpied said. “Finally I just gave her an A and told her to start. It seemed to help her to relax and she was able to start working.”

However, for the most part, Blandpied said that students continued doing about the same caliber of work regardless of whether it was graded.

“The people who do really good work and want to do well will do good work whether it’s graded or not, and then a small number of people will hand in late or sloppy work,” Blandpied said.

Blandpied said that the largest problem for her was giving passes to kids who turned in work of varied quality.

“Someone who’s done really thorough work and someone who hasn’t getting the same grade isn’t fair,” Blandpied said. “Ms. Peacock and I both had a really hard time with that, not being able to differentiate between the passing grades.”

Bit presentations compose a large part of the semester in social psychology, and Blandpied perceived a difference between the graded years and the ungraded years in terms of the amount of effort put into the bits.

“The bits are really important, and when they’re graded people work more, plan more, and put more time and effort into their presentations,” Blandpied said.

Blandpied felt that to have an ungraded class be fully successful would require a much larger cultural shift than a single class.

“We’re going against a tidal wave of years of ‘credit for effort’ here,” Blandpied said. “It’s hard at a school like this when everything is held up so high. When the only nonacademic class is also not graded people feel like they can relax and not work.”

Blandpied had first-hand experience with a school that emphasized its non-graded culture.

“I went to a high school that didn’t grade, and I have never worked so hard in my life,” Blandpied said. “I loved my teachers and I didn’t want to let them down. I liked them as people, I respected them, and I was really interested, so I was really motivated.”

Blandpied does not regret the four-year pass/fail trial period.

“In the end, I’m really glad we did it,” Blandpied said. “Now I just have more information.”