%0 Report
        %A Ozsoy, Mehlika
%A Rodríguez-Planas, Núria
        %T Unintended Effects of the Flexible Grading Policy
        %D 2023
        %8 2023 Jan
        %I Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
        %C Bonn
        %7 IZA Discussion Paper
        %N 15887
        %U https://www.iza.org/index.php/publications/dp15887
        %X Using an unbalanced panel of 23,007 academic records spanning from Spring 2019 to Spring 2022 representing one fourth of Queens College student population; and estimating event study analyses with individual fixed effects to control for time-invariant unobserved heterogeneity, we find unintended effects of the flexible grading policy (FGP), which allowed students to exercise the pass/fail option during the first academic year of the pandemic. Once the policy was no longer available, students who had used it underperformed relative to their own pre-pandemic performance relative to the change in performance of students who had never used the policy. FGP users earned 5.3% lower GPA in Spring 2021 and 4.7% lower GPA in Fall 2021 relative to Fall 2019 relative to the change observed among FGP non-users. 
This pattern is robust to sensitivity analysis and holds across tiers of the 2019 cumulative GPA distribution, as well as across various socio-demographic groups. Furthermore, these detrimental effects increased with the intensity of the policy use. Students' response to a survey rules out that these findings may be driven by pandemic-related health shocks, childcare disruptions, or challenges with online learning, financial aid, or job loss. We estimate that using the FGP is associated with a 16% lower likelihood of graduating and a 18% lower likelihood of graduating on-time by Spring 2022.
        %K flexible grading policy
%K unbalanced panel of academic records
%K transcript data
%K event analysis
%K individual fixed effects
%K survey data
%K GPA
%K college graduation and on-time graduation
%K COVID-19