Longitudinal associations with positivity, quarantining and pass/fail policy use on student GPAs during the first three semesters of the pandemic

Abstract

Objective

This research sought to understand the effects of testing positive, quarantining, and pass/fail policy use on college student GPAs across three semesters from Spring 2020 to Spring 2021.

Participants

644 students were followed across three semesters.

Methods

Anonymized secondary data sets regarding student health behaviors, perceived stress, and satisfaction were combined with registrar data concerning demographic factors, COVID-19 infection, the need to quarantine, and converting grades to pass/fail (P/F).

Results

The use of P/F was associated with inflated GPAs when offered during Spring and Fall 2020. Students opting to use P/F were more likely to be low-income and achieve a lower GPA in Spring 2021 when the P/F option was no longer offered. Testing positive and quarantining did not have a significant association with student GPA.

Conclusions

The research challenges the value of providing students the ability to convert grades to P/F during the pandemic.

Keywords:

• GPA
• COVID-19
• pass/fail

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements, of the united states and received approval from the Institutional Review Board of Berry College.