Furman’s David Eubanks describes the folly of the F

David Eubanks, Office of Institutional Assessment and Research.

Furman University’s David Eubanks writes a guest post for Inside Higher Education – “Our Grading System Gets an F.” As assistant vice president for institutional effectiveness at the university, Eubanks finds himself in a sea of data related to student success. “The importance of grading practices and GPA is everywhere I look – graduation rates and learning, teacher qualities and learning, instructional quality and learning, selection of majors and sense of belonging in college,” he writes.

With the stakes so high for students, he explains why assigning a grade of F is a misguided practice. He first advances five reasons why institutions of higher learning have traditionally given the dreaded mark over the decades, then he summarily debunks them all.

Eubanks holds a Ph.D. in mathematics from Southern Illinois University and, since 1991, has served variously as a faculty member and administrator at four private colleges.