Ask and You Shall Receive

I’ve taken the liberty of posting the greatest e-mail ever received and no, it isn't the one with the 43 page PC I syllabus:

We know that some of you have heard that the faculty is considering making a change to the grading system. We have and we are going to make some changes. You will receive the specifics of the changes shortly after the Christmas break. In the meantime, we want you to know that we have heard the concerns raised, we have reviewed grading systems at comparable law schools, and we have decided to make some adjustments so that our students’ grades are more competitive with those of others at comparable law schools. While the raw GPA numbers should only be a meaningful measure intraschool, we realize that students perceive a competitive disadvantage when the Baylor median student must include on his or her resume a GPA considerably lower than a median student from a comparable law school.

We plan to make 2 adjustments. First, the faculty recognizes and agrees that grades in required courses need to target a grade distribution that places the median grade near the middle of the “B” range. This target will not fit every curve and each professor retains discretion to determine an appropriate range of grades; however, we want you to know that we do recognize the discrepancy and we collectively desire to fix it. This target does not apply to elective courses because our study revealed that doing so would likely lower the elective-course average. And second, to allow for more accurate assessment of class performance within each class, we plan to add both a B+ and a C+ grade to the grading scale beginning with the winter grades. To ensure symmetry, the new scale will be:

A = 4.0
A- = 3.67
B+ = 3.33
B = 3.00
B- = 2.67
C+ = 2.33
C = 2.00
D = 1.00
F = 0

When you return we will have a meeting with you to discuss the changes.

We wish you safe travels, a Merry Christmas and a Joyous New Year.


Leah Jackson
Associate Dean and Professor
Baylor Law School

Feel free to place your own commentary but at this point, all I have to say is thank you.