Rethinking Evaluation at Hampshire

Hampshire's system of narrative evaluation in place of grades has been one

of the college's most distinctive features since its inception. It removes the

artifices of 'ranking' which afflict more conventional institutions, and potentially

allows for more thoughtful consideration by external constituencies of students

and their work.

Sadly, one external reality Hampshire faces is shorter attention spans

and lack of interest in substantive commentary on the part of graduate

schools and other external constituencies. For students transferring from

Hampshire, or attempting admission to graduate school, the Hampshire

transcript is more of a hinderance than a help.

Students often confuse the purpose of a narrative transcript for what should

best be reserved for a letter of recommendation. It should be the student's

right to assure that information communicated about them will be what best

reflects their capabiltiies. The present system and conditions allow all external

parties access to information which should more properly be the private concern

of a student.

As Hampshire has evolved into a course-based learning model with minimal

project-based work outside of course contexts, the only reported fact from a

course completion should be whether the student satisfactorily completed

the requirements of the course or not. Some might call this 'pass' or 'fail', but

that introduces a judgemental set of ideas which are not appropriate. Simply

reporting whether a student met requirements or not is ultimately best. The

college should then offer students the opportunity to request a narrative

evaluation for those courses where they met the requirements, and have it

included in the transcript under separate cover if that is the student's desire.

The time made available to faculty from the reduction of work in producing

narrative evaluations would then be open for tutorial instruction and non-course-based

project-based work. This would allow Hampshire to return to its more nontraditional

structure, and make for a more disinctive learning experience.