Making the (letter) grade. The incentive effects of mandatory pass/fail courses.

Autor/inn/en	Butcher, Kristin F.; McEwan, Patrick J.; Weerapana, Akila
Titel	Making the (letter) grade. The incentive effects of mandatory pass/fail courses.
Quelle	[Chicago, Illinois]: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago (2022), ca. 46 S. PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (1); PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (2); PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei (3) Link als defekt meldenVerfügbarkeit
Reihe	[Working paper] / Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. WP 2022, 55
Beigaben	Illustrationen
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	online; Monographie; Graue Literatur
DOI	10.21033/wp-2022-55
Schlagwörter	Bildungsverhalten; Studium; Hochschule; Anreiz; Student; USA
Abstract	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 regressiondiscontinuity-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.
Erfasst von	ZBW - Leibniz-Informationszentrum Wirtschaft, Kiel
Update	2024/1