Grading

The Jschool has a pass-fail grading system. Nonetheless you do have to submit an official “pass” or “fail” to the university for each of your students each semester. In addition, because “pass” encompasses such a wide range of ability, the Jschool asks you to give students more detailed feedback on their performance in your class by submitting narrative evaluations at the end of the semester. Instructions for both follow.

To submit grades to the university

(Required at the end of each semester for all classes)

Step 1: Go to Student Services Online, located at https://ssol.columbia.edu/

Step 2: Log in using your UNI and Columbia University password

Step 3: You’ll get this screen:

Step 4: Click “Web Grading” and indicate a grade in the drop-down menu next to each student’s name.  In the case of Jschool students, you’ll see the following options:

P (Pass)

F (Fail)

I (Incomplete)

R (ignore this one - it’s for an option the university allows, but we don’t)

UW (Unofficial Withdrawal)

In the case of non-Jschool students, you may see actual grade options listed, depending on that school’s grading policy.

Set the dropdown menu to the correct grade for each student and click “submit” at the bottom of the page. (Be sure to click “submit” and not “save”; the latter saves the grades in the system but won’t submit them to the university.)

Important: No student should ever receive any grade other than “pass” unless he or she receives prior warning; we ask that you not blindside a student at semester’s end by a fail or an incomplete. If a student’s performance in your class is so shaky that you anticipate such a grade will be necessary, reach out to Associate Dean Melanie Huff immediately -- preferably early enough in the semester for the student to have a chance to rectify the situation. See Student Issues section for more information.

To submit narrative evaluations of students

(Required at the end of each semester for all classes except 1-credit “essentials” classes)

In addition to submitting an official grade, you’ll need to submit a narrative evaluation for each Jschool student in your class. This evaluation should give students a sense of their strengths as well as the areas in which they need improvement. (You don’t have to do this for any non-Jschool students who in your classes.)

Because it’s hard to recall all the work that an individual student does across the span of the semester, you may find it helpful to keep notes, which make it a lot easier to write the evaluations at semester’s end. Sample evaluations follow this section.

The narrative evaluations are submitted to the Student Affairs Office via the link at right, which automatically forwards a copy to the student.

(Melanie Huff also sends this out via email each semester.)

You can write your evaluations in Word and upload them or cut and paste them directly into the form.

You’ll see that the form also includes a dropdown box asking whether you’re awarding the student honors in class or, alternatively, a low pass. These are unofficial designations that won’t appear on a student’s university transcript; however, they do provide you with a means of recognizing students who excel in your class or, alternatively, letting students know that, although they passed, it was by the skin of their teeth. Accumulated honors count toward school-wide awards at graduation. If you want the option of awarding students a low pass, please let students know that you will do that in the grading section of your syllabus.

NOTE: Honors-in-class is a designation for M.S. students only; the M.A. faculty voted against awarding honors to students in their program. However, you can award a low pass to an M.A. student as long as you’ve specified in your syllabus that you will exercise that option if a student’s performance warrants it.

The number of honors a you can award for your M.S. class depends on the number of students in your section. The formula is as follows:

  • 1-8 students enrolled = 1 (optional) honors-in-class designation
  • 9-16 students enrolled = up to 2 (optional) honors-in-class designations
  • 17-24 students enrolled = up to 3 (optional honors-in-class designations
  • For more than 24 students (example: the lecture-style Essentials classes), you may designate one honors-in-class per each eight students.

IMPORTANT: If you submit more honors designations than your enrollment allows, we won’t record any of them for year-end awards consideration. If you have questions about how many honors-in-class designations you can award, contact Melanie Huff.

You can award as many low passes are there are students who warrant it -- but we hope there won’t be many of them!