Yesterday was the University-wide drop deadline for courses in the spring 2026 semester. While this option is intended to give students flexibility, many will have to make a decision without precise knowledge of their progress in their classes. Midterms haven’t been administered yet. Problem sets and essays are still awaiting grades in Canvas. Students have been left in the dark. We are forced to make academic decisions without real data. It’s not fair, and it’s not necessary.
A lack of grade transparency is not an isolated issue. It’s a pattern. Too often, students move through half a semester with only vague signals about how they are performing. We might get a returned problem set with no rubric or a participation grade that is never explained. Not to mention that assignments can take weeks — sometimes months — to be graded.
Grade transparency means more than seeing a letter at the end of the semester. It means knowing, in real time, how your work is being evaluated. At a school with such high academic expectations, this should be the baseline. Without transparency, students are forced to guess. Should they drop a class? Should they invest more time in one course over another? Are they on track for the major they hoped to pursue? These decisions carry real consequences. They affect GPAs, which in turn can affect internship opportunities, graduate school applications, and mental health. Students’ lives should not be shaped by guesswork.
There are some simple steps that Penn’s administrators can take.
First, every instructor for every course at Penn should be required to enter at least one substantive grade before the drop deadline. This shouldn’t be fulfilled with just attendance or participation, but with a significant, weighted assignment that meaningfully reflects a student’s performance. If the deadline determines whether a student remains in a course, they deserve real information before making that choice.
Second, grades must be returned in a timely manner. Taking months to grade assignments or exams undermines the purpose of feedback. If students aren’t told where they can improve, how can they succeed in a course? Faculty should be required to communicate clear timelines for grading, and those timelines should be reasonable. If grades will be delayed, students should be notified. That includes final grades, for which an exact date is never publicized. Students only have access to a vague policy hinting at a final grade deadline, which leaves them guessing about when they might actually receive a final grade.
Third, students should be able to see their weighted totals in Canvas at any point in the semester. Many courses either hide the total column or fail to set up proper weighting. The result is confusion. Students are left calculating hypothetical grades on their own, unsure whether their math accurately reflects the professor’s eventual assignment of a letter grade.
Once again, this issue seems glaringly obvious. Yet, at Penn, practices like this are never a guarantee. All we have are unspoken “rules” that need to be made into more concrete policies. Some may argue that grading takes time and that flexibility is necessary. That is true. Faculty workloads are real. But transparency is not about speed alone. It is about communication and structure. A clear grading policy, a posted timeline, and an updated Canvas gradebook would greatly enhance the educational experience that Penn provides.
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On that note, consistent assessment and feedback is one of the most effective ways to foster growth and learning. Students improve when they understand how their work is being evaluated and where they stand in a course. Research consistently shows that timely, personalized feedback helps students correct misunderstandings and perform better in the classroom. Without clear signals about performance, it becomes much harder to identify weaknesses or learn material that may be misunderstood. Consistent grades are the key to unlocking an even stronger educational environment at Penn.
Penn asks its students to work hard and take ownership of their academics. The University should also make an effort to meet that commitment. Grade transparency doesn’t mean retroactive “inflation” or lowering the rigor demanded from a Penn student. Rather, it means giving students the information they need to grow and to make informed decisions. If Penn is serious about excellence, administrators should ensure that no student has to guess where they stand.
Editorials represent the majority view of members of The Daily Pennsylvanian Editorial Board, who meet regularly to discuss issues relevant to the Penn community. This body is led by Editorial Board Chair Jack Lakis and is entirely separate from the newsroom. Questions or comments should be directed to letters@thedp.com.
