Source: Common Sense
by Paul Jacob
“In the 1960s, MIT introduced a ‘Pass or No Record’ system for the first semester of freshman year. The idea? Help students adjust to greater workloads and ‘variations in academic preparation and teaching methods.’ You’d think that letter grades themselves would help students adjust by providing information about how well they are learning and adjusting — assuming that the grades are at least a roughly objective indication of mastery not yet rendered useless by grade inflation. Some universities let first-semester freshmen convert a poor letter grade into a pass/no credit ‘grade.’ Only a few have sweepingly replaced letter grades with the pass/no credit system in the first semester. Now University of Michigan has joined those few. One reason: to ‘curb the mental health crisis unfolding.'” (08/14/26)
https://thisiscommonsense.org/2026/08/14/grades-versus-feelings/