Queens College Grade Distribution and the Impact of COVID-19
Queens College (QC), a four-year college within the City University of New York (CUNY) system, serves a diverse and socially vulnerable student population. Understanding grade distribution at QC, particularly in the context of external events like the COVID-19 pandemic, is crucial for assessing student performance and identifying potential disparities. This article examines the grading policies at Queens College and analyzes the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on student academic performance, with a particular focus on differences between lower- and higher-income students.
Queens College Grading System
Queens College employs a letter grading system ranging from A+ to F, with corresponding grade point values that contribute to a student's Grade Point Average (GPA). Passing grades are assigned from A+ through D, and there is no D- grade. An A+ grade is recorded on the student's transcript but is calculated as an A in the GPA.
Pass/No Credit Option
Students at Queens College have the option to choose a Pass/No Credit (P/NC) grading option for a limited number of courses. Students may select one course each semester and one course in Winter and Summer Session for grading under the P/NC option. (Note: Summer Sessions 1 and 2 are considered a single semester.) No more than 21 credits of P/NC may be applied toward the baccalaureate degree. A grade of P (Pass) is assigned in place of a passing grade when a student chooses the P/NC grading option or when a P is the only legal grade that may be assigned in a course and the instructor has submitted an earned passing grade. P earns credit but is not calculated in the GPA. Instructors cannot submit a grade of P or NC except in courses where these grades are the only legal grade. The NC grade is assigned only when an F is submitted by the instructor. Only an earned failure is converted to an NC.
Failing Grades
A student who receives a failing grade (F, NC, or R) will not receive college credit for that course. The grades F are calculated in the GPA as zero. F (Failing) is assigned for work that, in the judgment of the instructor, does not deserve college credit. R (Repeat) is assigned when the instructor submits an F for a student in a CESL course. The NC grade is assigned only when an F is submitted by the instructor. If a student does not attend the course or if, as a result of excessive absences, the instructor has no basis on which to submit a final grade, a grade of WU may be assigned. The grade of WU will not be converted to an NC. WU and WF grades in courses taken under the P/NC option remain on the student’s record.
Temporary Grades
INC (Incomplete) is a temporary grade that may be assigned by faculty in consultation with the student when there is an expectation that the student can pass the course by submitting outstanding work. Undergraduate students have until the last day of the following semester to submit all required work. Graduate students have two semesters to submit all required work. Additionally, the INC grade can be used when a student has been absent from the final exam and a make-up exam is scheduled. PEN (Pending) is a temporary grade awarded when the disposition of the final grade requires further evaluation, and the incomplete grade is inappropriate.
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Withdrawal Grades
WA (Withdrawal, Administrative) is assigned by the Registrar when a student is not in full compliance with the college’s immunization requirements. WD (Withdrawal, Drop) is a non-punitive grade assigned when a class is dropped after the financial aid certification date during the program adjustment period. WN (Never Attended) If a student never attends a given class and does not withdraw officially, the WN grade will be assigned. If a student does not attend the course or if, as a result of excessive absences, the instructor has no basis on which to submit a final grade, a grade of WU may be assigned.
Finality of Grades
Assigned grades (A+ through F and WU), once assigned, stand as final evaluations. Student records are closed at graduation. No grade changes may be made to a student’s academic record after the degree has been awarded.
Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Academic Performance
The COVID-19 pandemic, with its subsequent closing of schools and campuses and move to online teaching, may be widening socio-economic educational gaps. The digital divide and uneven access to online learning resources is one mechanism underlying the greater learning losses among lower-income students. At the same time, because online learning requires more discipline and self-regulated learning than traditional in-person learning, it would be reasonable to expect the educational gap between low- and high-performing students to widen if basic skills are necessary to acquire additional skills. Despite this evidence, little is known on how the pandemic affected college students’ academic performance during the Spring 2020 and whether it had any differential effect on lower-income students’ academic performance relative to that of their higher-income peers.
A study using an unbalanced panel of over 11,000 academic records spanning from Spring 2017 to Spring 2020 examines the differential effects of the pandemic on Spring 2020 GPA and credits taken, earned, and failed by students’ pre-pandemic income among students enrolled in Queens College. The identification strategy relies on both difference-in-differences models and event study analyses.
Overall GPA Changes
During Spring 2020, higher-income students earned a 13.4% higher Spring 2020 GPA relative to their pre-pandemic mean. In contrast with students’ academic expectations for Spring 2020, lower-income students outperformed their wealthier peers as they earned a 5.1% higher GPA.
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Performance Based on Pre-COVID GPA
Lower-income students in the bottom quartile of the 2019 Fall cumulative GPA distribution outperformed their higher-income counterparts with a 9% higher Spring 2020 GPA relative to the counterfactual’s pre-pandemic mean. This higher performance is strongly associated with the flexible grading policy as it vanishes when I use the GPA students would have earned in the absence of the flexible grading policy. Indeed, transcript data reveal that lower-income students from the bottom quartile were 35% more likely to exercise the pass/fail option than their higher-income counterparts.
While no such GPA advantage is observed among top-performing lower-income students, in the absence of the flexible grading policy these students would have underperformed relative to their higher-income counterparts as their GPA would have been 4% lower (relative to the pre-pandemic mean for the comparison group of 3.718). To put it differently, in the absence of flexible grading, lower-income top-performing student would have seen their GPA decrease by 5% relative to their counterfactual pre-pandemic mean.
Potential Explanations for Performance Differences
Suggestive evidence indicates that this lower performance may be driven by lower-income top-performing students experiencing greater challenges with online learning than their wealthier peers. These students also reported a higher use of incompletes and being more concerned about maintaining (merit-based) financial aid.
Flexible Grading Policy
The flexible grading policy implemented during Spring 2020 allowed students to choose a Pass/Fail option, mitigating potential GPA declines. Lower-income students, particularly those in the bottom quartile of academic performance, were more likely to utilize this option. Lower-income students in the bottom quartile were 35% more likely to exercise the pass/fail option than their higher-income counterparts.
Data Sources and Methodology
The data in this paper come from three different sources. Individual administrative academic records from QC were merged with survey data on students’ challenges collected during the early months of the pandemic. For each semester, students’ semester GPA; credits taken, which do not include courses officially withdrawn as they do not affect the GPA; credits earned; and credits for which a failing grade was earned are observed. In regular years, the latter include credits from: (1) courses unofficially withdrawn (where the student stopped attending and never withdrew); (2) courses with an F grade; and (3) courses with a grade of Failed Incomplete, which is the grade assigned when an incomplete is not resolved by the following semester. In Spring 2020, this category also includes credits for courses with a grade of No Credit (NC). Other information available in QC administrative records includes students’ sex, age, race, and ethnicity. In addition, the following information collected at the beginning of Spring 2020: students’ major, class level (indicating whether the student is a freshman, sophomore, junior, senior, or in graduate school), Fall 2019 cumulative GPA, part-time student status, and whether the student had ever received the federal Pell grant is observed. In addition, Spring 2020 transcript data provide information on whether the student exercised the pass/fail option (no-letter grade), took an incomplete, or simply removed the class record after the end of the semester (the NC grade). Such information is used to estimate both the prevalence and intensity of such options during the Spring 2020. Transcript data also inform us on whether the student withdrew a course officially or unofficially. If the student officially withdrew the course, she did so within the first nine weeks of the semester, and her GPA was not affected. If the student never withdrew the course but stopped attending, it is considered as an unofficially withdraw, and the student received a failing grade. Such information is used to estimate both the prevalence and intensity of courses withdrawn officially and unofficially. The students’ responses to an online survey on their experiences during Spring 2020 are used to further identify potential mechanisms behind these findings.
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Student Demographics
CUNY is known to be an institution that educates some of the poorest students in the country. It is also known to have a very diverse student population. Hence, it is not surprising that QC students are more racially diverse than students from the largest public university in each state. Comparing columns 1 and 2 reveals that lower-income students (defined as those who ever received a Pell grant) are more likely to be Asians or Hispanics than higher-income students. They are also more likely to be first-generation college students, transfer students, and ESL students, and less likely to be US born than higher-income students. They also have a lower Fall 2019 cumulative GPA. Given the Pell-grant requirements, lower-income students are younger, and less likely to be graduate students or study part-time than higher-income students.
Regression Models
The following regression model is used: where Yist is the outcome of interest (for example, semester GPA) for student i in semester s and year t. Spring2020s is a dummy equal 1 if the academic record is for Spring 2020 and 0 prior to that. Low-Incomei is equal to 1 if student i ever received the Pell grant and 0 if the student never received the Pell grant. φi represents the individual fixed effects, Falls is a dummy equal 1 if the academic record is for the Fall semester and 0 if it is for the Spring semester, and Yeart represents the year fixed effects. The coefficient of interest, β2, captures the differential post-pandemic effect on the outcome, Yist, for lower-income students relative to their higher-income peers. Note that the individual fixed effects, φi, absorb the lower-income indicator (as well as all the other time-invariant observable and unobservable characteristics). The coefficient β1 captures how the academic performance of higher-income students changed in Spring 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. As identification comes from comparing outcomes from the same student before and after the pandemic, there is no need to control for time-invariant observable characteristics. The critical identifying assumption is that there are parallel trends in the outcome variable across both groups (lower- versus higher-income students). where Ssj is a dummy which takes value 1 if the outcome is observed in jth semester before (-j) or after (+j) January 27th 2020, which is when Spring 2020 began, and 0 otherwise. Fall 2019 dummy is the omitted semester. where QiqFall2019 is a dummy variable which takes the value 1 if the Fall 2019 cumulative GPA of student i is in the qth quartile-the reference category is the first quartile. All the other covariates have been previously defined. The coefficient β1 captures the change in outcome during Spring 2020 experienced by higher-income students in the bottom quartile. The sum of β1 and γq, (β1+γq), captures the change in outcome during Spring 2020 experienced by higher-income students in the qth quartile. To identify changes by income level, the coefficient β2 captures the differential effect in the change in outcome after the pandemic between lower- and higher-income students in the bottom quartile. The sum of β2 and δq, (β2+δq), captures the differential effect in the change in outcome after the pandemic between lower- and higher-income students in qth quartile. The coefficient δq measures the differential effect in the change in outcome post-pandemic between lower- and higher-income students in qth quartile relative to that experienced between lower- and higher-income students in the bottom quartile. , I display (β1+γq) and (β2+δq) for the top three quartiles (q = 2, 3, and 4). Because Eq. Semester GPA after exercising Flex. where YiSpring2020 is the student’s i outcome during Spring 2020. Xi0 is a vector of for all the baseline characteristics listed in Table 1 and students’ majo…
Additional Academic Policies and Resources
Graduation Application
Students can apply for graduation through their CUNYfirst Student Center for the Fall, Spring and Summer semesters. It is imperative to file for graduation on time to be included in the commencement activities. For spring candidates the deadline is March 1; for summer candidates the deadline is April 1. Names of graduates will appear on the diplomas as they appear in CUNYfirst. The official audit is conducted by the QC Hub, Graduation Audit Unit, and supersedes all other indications that the student has completed all the degree requirements. Graduate students must be enrolled or maintain matriculation for the semester in which they intend to graduate. Graduate students who are not enrolled in classes but have completed their coursework must file a Maintenance of Matriculation form and pay the associated fee. Diplomas are ordered after degrees are posted in CUNYfirst.
DegreeWorks
DegreeWorks is a web-based program that enables you to easily track your academic progress. You will be able to see how specific College requirements have been met and what courses you can take to fulfill the requirements which are remaining. With the ‘What If’ feature, you will also be able to see how your academic requirements might change if you were to change your major. DegreeWorks is not your academic transcript nor is it an official notification of completion of degree requirements. Changes made to your official academic record will take at least 24-48 hours to be reflected in your DegreeWorks report. This progress report does not supersede the College Catalog and/or academic policies. Your transcript, however, is your official College record, and it must be requested from the Registrar’s Office. Newly registered courses and information from CUNYfirst usually takes least 24-48 hours to be reflected and uploaded to DegreeWorks. ‘Not Counted’ are courses that will not be applied to your record and will be subtracted from your total credit count. Students are allowed a different number of general electives depending on the amount of coursework completed, as well as the number of credits required by a student’s major, certificate or minor, to meet the total number of credits required for the Degree program. ‘Electives not allowed’ may count towards the degree and total credit count. However, any course that exceeds the number of credits for Elective Classes Allowed or do not apply to any requirement, will fall into this section. After you have successfully applied, you will undergo a review conducted by the QC Hub and will be alerted if you have any issues.
Dual Majors
In cases where a student completes the requirements for two majors from different award designations, such as majors in Business (BBA) and English (BA), the student may be awarded the degree associated with one of the two majors. At the time of degree checkout, only one degree with one major will be awarded. However, for the identification of the second major: a notation of completion of all of the requirements of the second major will reside in the transcript permanent comment section. There is no CUNY-wide or New York State policy that precludes students from pursuing two majors from two different award designations, and the completion of suchdual major combinations can be recorded on the student’s academic record and presented on the transcript as a comment. A second option is for students to receive two degrees and two diplomas. In order to be awarded two degrees, such as a BA and BBA, students must complete at least an additional 30 credits in residence beyond the standard 120 total credits required for a bachelor’s degree.
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