Professors fired after refusal to inflate grades

[wyethwire]

The State
8/20/2004

2 Benedict professors fired over grade policy

Both had refused to follow requirement of rewarding students for effort

By CAROLYN CLICK
Staff Writer

Two Benedict College science professors have been fired after they refused to assign grades that rewarded students’ effort as much as acquired knowledge.

President David Swinton dismissed Milwood Motley and Larry Williams when they defied his Success Equals Effort policy, which Swinton said provides struggling freshmen a leg up in adapting to college academics.

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/9447881.htm

[WMliberal]

1. bravo.

This is a huge problem in academia right now. Lots of prestigious schools are inflating their grades, so their students look better when applying to grad schools (cough, Harvard, cough cough). At some institutions, it's now standard to have the class average at A-, instead of B- or C+.

[ProfessorGAC]

21. A Problem Right Now????

It's been a problem for 50 years! It's actually better at the university level than it was in the 50's and 60's.

The term "gentlemen's C" isn't a new term. It's even older than the 50 years i mentioned It was coined for the practice of giving legacy and donor progeny grades they didn't deserve.


There appears to be a return to this form of grade inflation in the last several years. But, it's not a new problem in any way.

Fortunately, i'm not subject to this. First, i don't teach that much anymore. Secondly, doing only grad classes in highly specialized fields, there is no "E for effort". You either know it or you don't. I've never had this problem, but know lots of folks who have.
The Professor

[coalition_unwilling]

25. America is now Lake Wobegon

Everyone is above average.

For an interesting and amusing fictional take on the deeper significance to this issue, read Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron."

From what I've heard, grade inflation as we know it today began during the Vietnam years, as college professors raised grades to keep draft-eligible men in deferred status. But that may be an urban myth, as I've never seen it definitively sourced.

[mitchum]

47. From what I witnessed, you are absolutely correct about grade inflation...

during the Vietnam era. Unfortunately, many of them went onto graduate school and I later suffered through a number of professors who had no business calling themselves "scholars" Another unfortunate legacy of the conflict.

[istruthfull]

51. above average

Read somewhere that 65% of the people belive that they have above average intelligence.

[stavka]

2. As a teaching assistant at MAJOR University

I had a couple of students, who's families had more money than time for moral instruction; these students alternately begged, threatened, and tried to bribe me to change their grades from undeserved C's to A's.

They never had submitted any work at all, but wanted an A from my portion of the class (only 15% of the grade)...made me sick, but I stuck to my guns...

welcome to the America. I guess they've closed the "Bush C's at Yale Gap"

[mistertrickster]

4. I think you could get them expelled if they literally tried to bribe you

with money. That's beyond the pale.

I'm finding that students don't seem to mind getting failed for plagiarism and just sign up for the course next semester, sometimes even with me, the guy who failed them for cheating.

If you got the money, what's another few hundred in tuition?

[stavka]

6. ...it was in 1989

...and it was access to the supposedly elite great party scene with the frats (I looked like a Hell's Angel at the time) and drugs and implied women rather than money.

At the time, that was sort of a check, check, check - got those three covered without having to hang out with the likes of you.

Today -(I'm out of the academic end of academia, though still work at a major University) - now, I look more like an extra from an Aryan Nations prison gang, less the black tats - but I see the same attitude recanted by students who work for me.

Gross inequality of wealth/power will destroy this house. - only a matter of path.

[Ms. Clio]

10. Where do they get failed for plagiarism?

When I was a TA a few years ago, a girl copied the textbook word for exact word on one of her papers.

I gave her an F. The prof changed it to a D.

[mistertrickster]

26. Oh, man, that sucks--what a wimp

I like to help students as much as I can, UNTIL they plagiarise, then I lose all sympathy.

I fail them for the entire semester--no re-writes, no make ups. So far the administration has backed me up.

One student had the temerity to tell me that someone must have gained access to his computer without his knowledge and posted his original paper to the "Cheat House" website where I found it with a google search.

The Deans and I enjoyed that one . . .

[Ms. Clio]

52. If only they would apply a fraction of that creativity

to their classwork!

The chick's plagiarism was so blatant--only the introduction and conclusion (neither of which made any sense or had anything to do with the assignment) were in her own, poorly-written words.

Giving her a pass seemed so unfair to the students that actually did the work.

[hughee99]

36. A friend of mine

got an F for "plagiarism" for a paper he wrote, not because he didn't cite the source, but because he cited it incorrectly (not according to the official MLA standards). I thought that F was kinda bullshit, but what could you do? His appeal was not even listened to by the department head. The fact that he cited the information (although it wasn't in the "proper" format) at least shows that he was not trying to steal someone else's work. Many years later, it bothers me that a professor that was so big on "proper english and format" would have misused the word plagiarism. Since he did cite a source, and didn't attempt to pass this off as his own, it wouldn't fit the definition. It would have been one thing if he was studing something related to English, or languages, but he was a Civil Engineer and taking this course as an elective.

[mistertrickster]

39. I agree--that is something else entirely. That's an honest mistake.

Maybe he should have worked harder on understanding the MLA style and gotten graded down somewhat for not knowing it, but an F for plagiarism is way out of line IMHO.

That's not teaching, that's just exacting punishment. It's too bad the Dean wouldn't give the student a hearing. The department should have had to discuss guidelines on this.

Some people seem to be attracted to the teaching profession just so they can be in a position of power to lord it over their hapless students--they give us all a bad name.

[FightinNewDem]

44. Biden

This is similar to what happened to Joe Biden in the overblown "plagiarism" scandal of 1987. He didn't lift material; rather, he failed to use proper Blue Book cites.

FYI...the "Blue Book" is a riddiculous thing foisted on the legal world by (who else) Harvard Law School. It contains hundreds of pages of absurdly picky rules. If you ever need the proper abbreviation for an intermediate appelate court in new Zealand, this is the place to look. Other than that, it's a pain in the ass.

[Ms. Clio]

53. I agree with mistertrickster--that was totally out of line

That's not plagiarism--what a bullying jackass.

[WMliberal]

5. bush would get an A- there now, n/t

[kodi]

7. buddy had a dept head change his class's grades while vacationing

he quit right there.

i had similar experiences with dept heads when i taught. the pressure was heavy to hand out B's and even just to pass kids who put more effort into wiping their asses than the class.

once had a kid with a 55% final average ask me to give her a B. this when i gave a quiz every Friday,(based upon the previous homeworks), you could drop the worst 3 quizzes (13 in all), and it accounted for 20% of the grade, the other %s were broken down into mid-term 20%, final 50%, and term paper 10% worth, and i gave out homework problems each class and grade them on 1-10 scale, and added the total divided by the product of (10 X # of homework assignments). so you could earn 10 points to the final grade just for doing the homework right.

I mean, come on, i would have killed to get a prof in school who laid it out so clearly what you needed for a grade.

anyone who worked hard enough could have gotten an A if they put the time into it. and i had 4-5 out of 17 students who were earning 97-98 grades (before the extra credit added) and this student was complaining about the C i gave her. jesus, i was so exasperated that i told her that in the real world, her performance would get her fired, not praised.

I showed her the grade book and without showing the names of the 3 top students, their grades.. I asked her what right did she have to get a grade comparable to the 3 students who i knew worked hard. I told her she was still getting a C.

the next day i was called into the dept head's office to defend myself. the student had gone to her adviser to complain that i "had it in for her."

I brought two other faculty to the meeting with the dept head to act as witnesses. at first the dept head refused to have the other two faculty in the room with us, but i had read the faculty handbook which allowed for such. (pissed off the dept head too for me doing it.)

result was the two faculty backed me up, the student got a C, i got my departmental research funding cut to nearly zero.

moral is that the student was the daughter of a rich alumnus and she did not get into a grad school because of her grades.

I quit teaching at the university 3 months later, and doubled my income.

but i left the kids to people I thought couldn't teach.

welcome to george bush's america, where bad management drives out good people.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

17. This is how empire crumbles

It rots from within.

[mistertrickster]

27. And she shouldn't have gotten into grad school either if she didn't

want to work at academics. Did this happen at a private school (I hope)?

[HEyHEY]

50. Write down their names and if they ever run for office

badda- bing!

[baldguy]

3. "Professor, I know I've failed - but I tried REALLY HARD!"

Give me a break! Failure is a PART of life. GROW UP! DEAL WITH IT!

edit:
What gets me is that grade inflation devalues the scores of people who really did work hard for their grade. A student who reads the text, asks questions, hands in assignments on time, and generally participates in his education DESREVES the grade. Spoiled rich kids who coast through and expect to have daddy bail them out simply don't.

[CanIgonow]

14. But our president does it, that must mean it is the right thing to do.

[Lisa]

45. "You can't give me a 'C' on this paper -- I spent almost 20 hours on it!"

I'd explained in class that marks would be allocated based on paper content (did they manage to find lots of material and interpret it clearly?), technical details (did they write an abstract, do in-text referencing, etc.), and style (was it readable?). A student who'd missed the spiel (and also the seminar on "how to find relevant journal articles") had grabbed some stuff off the Web -- avoided addressing the major question she'd chosen -- and thrown in a bunch of unconnected opinions. When I went over the marking key with her, her main argument was that she'd spent more time working on the paper than her classmates had, so she deserved higher grades! She even vowed to bring in her mother, to swear that she hadn't left her room for a whole evening!

Because I was more concerned that she was in 4th year and didn't know how to write a major term paper yet, than with knocking down her grade, I gave her a conditional "C" with a mandatory rewrite, instead of flunking her. It made a bunch of extra work for me, and she sure didn't thank me for it!

(I guess I have to hope that she actually did learn something from the process ... I cling to that, and to the fact that I got rehired by the department to do the same course. And my enormous sessional lecturer paycheque, of course.)

[Cleita]

8. You know, I only got an AA and then did another

year, but I never finished cause I had to go to work. Actually, getting a BA back then would have gotten me the same job I got anyway, so it was more important for me to go to work and help out the family. But I gotta tell you, over the years I met so many college graduates and even some with Masters degrees who were appalling undereducated and ignorant. Now I know why.

[kimchi]

9. Is our students learning?

When I was in community college, I told the teacher I had seen students cheating---on an OPEN BOOK test, where the exact questions were given as homework. The professor said he couldn't do anything about it because when he tried to crack down students kept slashing his tires.

I think it is more prevalent than any of us could guess--cheating your way through college, that is.

[UdoKier]

11. Imagine if the policy was applied to students studying nuclear engineering

and if these graduates were in charge of safeguarding the nuclear plant near your home!

The minute we let standards for grades start to slide is when we start to risk catastrophe, in a thousand ways we've yet to think of.

Imagine if the guys at NASA went through such a watered-down process before designing the shuttle's heat tiles. Oh wait, what am I saying - maybe they did!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

12. Well...

[Zing Zing Zingbah]

13. I'm not sure,

but I have a suspicion that grade inflation may happen more at the expensive and pretentious private schools. Rich people figure they are paying for their kids grades when they pay the high tuition rates and/or donate money.

I went to a state school (Univ. of Maine). I didn't notice any grade inflation happening, at least in the college of engineering. The professors were tough, consistent, and fair. Grades were solely based on the merit of your work in relation to what would be expected of a typical professional engineer. Most students (myself included) had to work their asses of just to maybe make a C in a class as I remember. I knew a good amount of people that worked their asses off only to fail a class and repeat it again. There was even one class that I took in the computer science department (college of liberal arts and sciences) that was notorious for many people repeatedly failing it. The professors regarded the C as meaning your work is up to par with what they would expect from a professional engineer. I even had a professor tell me "good job" for getting a C on my senior project. The professors didn't care about effort, they wanted results. If your senior project didn't work during your 60 minute presentation (in front of the whole department and your peers), it was an automatic failure and you didn't get to graduate that semester. That's kind of harsh considering that the senior project presentation was the culmination of three semesters worth of work and this was only a bachelor's degree program.

BTW, I graduated in 2001, not too long ago.

[western mass]

16. Sadly it's everywhere

Having worked or taught at several major public universities, I can tell you grade inflation is everywhere, and it's easy to understand. In the "corporate" model that prevails in higher education these days, administrators don't bat an eye when they call students "consumers," and their #1 concern is to keep the money coming (catering to the consumers by moving the "product", ie diplomas, bringing in alumni & corporate donations, research funding, etc.). Anything that threatens to make waves in the cash stream (such as high academic standards leading to disgruntled consumers) is looked upon pretty poorly. In fact, consumer satisfaction is built into the system. It's common for faculty promotion/pay raises to be based in part on student evaluations. (To be fair, popular teachers often are GOOD teachers, and student evaluations can be good. Fact remains, however, that doing anything to annoy students, and incidentally cause grief for administrators, can have a direct impact on career/salary).

[Yupster]

19. Everywhere

It's a big problem in our local elementary schools. Mean grade given a few years ago was an A- in our local elementary district.

So, parents - if your kid is getting almost all A's, you don't have any idea how well he's doing, at least according to his report card.

[Lisa]

46. the "client" model sure has made things interesting!

When administrators began announcing that students were to be treated like customers at a fast-food outlet (with the likes of yours truly slinging the philosophical burgers), it's no wonder that we started getting requests like "I've missed the past month of lectures because I've been travelling -- can you e-mail me your lecture notes?". After all, they've paid several hundred dollars to take my course, so they figure they aren't getting their money's worth unless they get this degree of service -- even if it means calling the instructor at home on a weekend!

[tblue37]

55. You might like to read one of my essays on my

Teacher, Teacher website:

"Grade Inflation: The 'Customer' Is Not Always!"

http://teacherblue.homestead.com/customer.html

In it I also describe the situration in Piper, Kansas, when a high school biology teacher resigned after the school board changed the failing grades she had given to students who had plagiarized a major assignment. (This happened 2 1/2 years ago.)

[Ms. Clio]

56. Good essay--god, these students are such punks

Really makes me wonder if teaching is truly in my future--and the job market looks pretty bleak, anyway.

[RobinA]

18. Nope

I'm in grad school at a college that is neither expensive (relatively speaking) nor pretentious. The grade inflation is unbelievable. I partied through undergrad in the '70's and got Bs and Cs, all completely deserved. I'm now totally dedicated to learning in my classes and getting As, also deserved. But I think the lowest anybody ever gets is a B+. I certainly feel that my grades are devalued, because what meaning does my A that came from a final where I got a 97 have when students who got an 80 on the same test have an A-? I want the damn credit for learning the material.

[WMliberal]

34. oh it's everywhere

At William and Mary, we call B's uvA's, because that same amount of effort would have gotten you an A at UVA. There are wild differences between departments too. My local paper profiled the departments of several state schools last year. For, example, in my majors, history and government, only 27% and 32% of all grades given out were A's. In the music department, something like 80% of all grades were A's. Business and English, two of the largest departments, gave out 50% of all grades as A's.

[lottie244]

15. It there any wonder we are in the mess that we are in with people just

like these having lied and cheated their way into positions of power?

[amazona]

20. don't know what to think

A friend was a P.E. major in college.

He is very short.

No matter how much effort he put into the required basketball course, there is no way he was going to get his usual A or B. He and another short student met with the coach and asked if they could get credit for effort since they spent many more hours practicing than taller students needed to do.

The coach said: "If I was putting out all my effort in algebra and the best I could do was C work because of my lack of talent, you wouldn't award me an A, would you?"

The friend had to agree that the coach had a point. If grades are to be an accurate measure of skill, they can't be based on just "oh, golly, but I was trying reallll hard." So he took his C and went on his way.

People being given grades for effort are being treated a bit like grade schoolers who have to be humored regardless of their lack of knowledge or skill. On the other hand, considering some of the prep or lack of prep in SC schools, maybe the students do need a year or two to transition.

This to me would be a tough one.

[RobinA]

22. Couldn't Agree More

If I'm really smart and get As without any effort, does that mean I should get a C because I didn't try hard?

Who wants to be operated on by a surgeon who passed through medical school by being graded for effort. By the same token, if your surgeon screws up and maims you for life, do you feel better knowing that he tried really, really hard to do things right? Same for a lawyer. "You got the death penalty? But I tried so hard."

[fob]

23. This is gonna sound weird but, what does height have to do with

a college basketball course required for a PE Degree? Was there a slam dunking contest that was 25% of the grade? I imagine a basketball course for a PE Degree would cover the rules, how to run practice drills, dividing teams by different criteria, how to shoot and the fundamentals. I took a tennis course and lack of a 130mph serve made no difference whatsoever in grading.

I don't discount your story, I just don't think it makes sense.

[mondo joe]

30. I don't think this is a valid comparison at all.

Your friend was apparently being graded not on some objective standard but relative to the performance of others who were taller.

I don't see how this compares with scoring on a test as an individual. I really don't.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

24. The DUHbya-ing down of America.

Just listening to the famed Harvard Business School graduate who claims to represent America is enough to give validation to the story of inflated grades. Unless they now offer courses in incoherancy.

[mistertrickster]

28. Actually, I have the solution to grade inflation (BUT NO ONE WANTS TO DO

it).

The teacher assigns grades on the basis of a standard bell curve--that is, 2 percent A's, 14 percent B's, 64 percent C's, 14 percent D's, and 2 percent F's.

So the students compete with each other for the best grades. Out of a class of 25, it should be very likely that no one would get an A (or an F) because the class size is too small for a really excellent student to emerge. Out of 100 students, only 2 would get A's.

It actually would make grading a lot easier because teachers could just rank students instead of measuring their output against some kind of criteria.

But it will never happen because everyone is fairly comfortable with the current system.

What's more likely to happen is that a completely new evaluation system will be put in place (in addition to the grades)--something that is more quantifiable that measures the number of times the student missed class or asked questions in class etc. This is essentially what we have now for grad school, the GRE, the MCAT, the LSAT ad infinitum . . . We need the tests because we know the grades are crap.

[RobinA]

29. Bell Curve

I think this kind of grading is extremely unfair. If all the students do well, they should all get good grades. If they all do poorly they should all get poor grades. Why penalize people for not doing as well as other people if they still did well? A test that would be reasonably expected to give bell-shaped curve results is not a problem, but each student would still get the grade he earned, not the grade vetted on what everyone else in the class earned.

On another hand, I would like college professors to have SOME education in how to actually concoct a test. In my grad career so far, I have seen some pretty god-awful test questions. This isn't fair to students either.

Plus, this much competition would make for an utterly obnoxious academic atmosphere. I want the emphasis to be on learning, not on what everyone else in the class is doing.

[Cleita]

41. I always hated the curve grading.

I'm with you, if you do A work you get an A. If you do C work that's what you deserve. You educators though would have to get your heads together though to come up with a fair testing system.

[Runcible Spoon]

31. PLEASE reject such a notion!

this is what lazy profs do, assign a bell curve and give one midterm and one final, both mutiple choice. it is unfair to students. There is no guarantee that this will curb grade inflation because profs will just make the content of the exams easier. 2 A's in a 100 seems ridiculously low. Profs are under an intense amount of pressure to pass students. There is no reason to punish high-performing students by giving too few A's just to push through the mediocre ones. The answer lies in smaller class sizes, more dedicated faculty (let's face it, many profs HATE teaching and maintain a Univeristy appointment just to be able to get research granting), a less business-model-oriented administrational bureaucracy, and a push to get students motivated and involved with their education.

[ProfessorGAC]

33. It Would Be The Wrong Bell Curve Anyway

First, let me say that standard curve grading is a bad idea. I completely agree with you and reject it out of hand.

Why?

Well, people don't fit the bell curve in academics. A more appropriate curve fit would be the beta distribution. It is more flattened and provides more area under the curve for a higher population of extremes. Since people tend to fit that profile in terms of intelligence, physical prowess, (speed, stength, balance), tactile talents (music, dance, painting), then it's easy to assume that academic achievment fits into that curve shape as well.

Also, it is patently ridiculous to use the curve to define the floor, or the point of failure. Failure is not a fully randomized event. Some kids, whether through poor environment, or just adolescent rage, fail despite their talents. Others will fail at some things, even if they try really hard. So, the floor needs to be set, based upon some objective criteria of what level of learning and reasoning is expected by course's end.

Now, once those who have not fallen below the threshold are redacted from the dataset, a simple A, B, C (no D's) fit would apply using the beta distribution. That would allow the top 15% or so to be A's, the bottom 15% to be C's, and the middle 70% B's. Since the floor was set to determine the minimum achievement, that's fair, since everyone above that has succeeded.

So, curve grading can be made to work, but not the way it's normally applied. Like i said, i agree completely with you. 2% A's! That's preposterous.
The Professsor

[Lisa]

48. it's amazing how much of a spread you get for different years ...

As ProfessorGAC notes, the theoretical bell-shaped distribution doesn't often fit reality. This is especially the case where you've got a relatively small number of people, being admitted to the class under conditions that change from year to year. For example, they suddenly opened up my course to people from a different faculty. That gave me a bimodal distribution of marks -- a bunch of students scoring in the high 60s, and another bunch getting 80s because they'd already had the prerequisite course. I didn't even have to run a K-S test to tell it was a non-normal distribution!

And my TAs have reported that a supposedly-random sample of people within that class can result in a lab section full of shy newbies in the morning -- and an afternoon section that's ultra-keen and won't shut up!

To use a pop-culture example -- some years there are half a dozen films that could each win a "Best Picture" Oscar, but in other years the one that gets the statuette can't hold a candle to the previous winners. At least in my line of work, I can take steps so that people won't be penalized just because they happen to end up in a class full of smart-asses who'd snag all the A+ grades if I put a ceiling on how many I'd be handing out.

It takes a lot of preparation ahead of time -- which is why I'm already tired by the time classes start -- but after looking at what the upper-level courses require, I work out a list of what people would have to do to score top grades. If they manage it, they get the grade. There have been times where I've handed out A's to a quarter of the class -- and others where nobody's gotten one, because they didn't do everything on the checklist. My curves tend to be flattened, with a slight skew to the right (because if people are borderline, I'd rather give them the benefit of the doubt than have people bitterly posting stuff years later about how I was an unfair *itch who scared them off geography!). The people who do flunk out do so with a resounding thud -- they had to have done poorly in multiple areas.

[Lucky Luciano]

58. If anyone must inflate grades, then I have the following solution.

I was in the mathematcis department at UCLA and I always suggest the following that works well for math exams. I like the idea of having a couple really hard ass questions on an exam and if they are answered incorrectly, then it will not really a hurt a student's grade too much, but you get to spot the talent when you find a couple students who can answer the "real" questions. These are the ones that get your best recommendations because they showed true talent for logical problem solving. This way you can grade stuedents in accords with what the university wants and still be able to give an edge to the truly talneted students that otherwise would look the same on paper as some schmo that got an A without showing significant talent.

[lolly]

35. 64% getting the same grade?

I fail to see how giving 3/5 of the class a "C" is any better than giving 3/5 of the class and "A" or a "B." That is a huge range, and would probably encompass a rather large range in scores.

The standard Bell curve for grades that we were always given was 10-20-40-20-10.

No "A"s in a class of 25 is ridiculous.

[K-W]

37. There is a simpler solution that isnt soo totally unfair to students.

Professors grade correctly and set the bars in the right places so you have to do A level work to get an A etc.

Curves suck, sometimes an entire class does A work, why do a bunch of them have to get C's?

[mistertrickster]

38. Actually, I agree . . . I'd never grade this way myself. I'm too

"nurturing" or what ever you want to call it.

Also, it would pit student against student, so by making other students do badly one could make him/herself do better.

I brought it up mainly to show how unpleasant the alternatives to "grade inflation" are. At my college, there is absolutely no incentive to be a hard or even a "fair" grader, unless one enjoys seeing students drop in droves and complain to the dean.

Meanwhile if you turn your C's into B's and your B's into A's, your classes fill, your evaluations improve, and everything just hums right along.

What is the point of fighting it?

[K-W]

42. Well there is certainly a point if you see a value to grades.

I mean personally, I dont agree with the grading system. I dont think schools should be labling students to setup a stratification so that different opportunities can be given to different students. But I dont agree with an aweful lot abuot our current educational system.

But if you are going to have grades, then grade inflation is a problem, because it ruins the entire point of having grades.

I come from a school that fights grade inflation, it does so in a pretty good way, by pressuring professors to keep reasonable GPA averages. The professors have leeway to reward exceptional classes, they just have to show over time that they are willing to give C's to average students.

While it certainly would be nice to get A's for effort, I do appreciate that my GPA was actually worth something when I left.

[NashVegas]

40. Competition For Grades Is What Got Us Here

You have a measuring stick as an indicator of standards. Either people meet it or they don't. Students should be competing against the stick for the grades, not each other. If they only have to compete against each other, no one has to strive for true merit, only relative merit.

[eridani]

43. That's what the 'free market' is all about

If students are only customers, then people who make customers mad will get fired, just like in any other business.

Education should not be a business, period.

[Runcible Spoon]

32. It is an extremely tough situation for Profs.

my department is a case in point. Anthropology, at least at my university, has 4 subfields, one being linguistics. Since the early 90's there have been an influx of students who wanted to major in Computer Science. The problem is ONE 300 level class that has a very high failure rate. For some reason, the comp sci department has no pressure to push through students in that class. so the failing comp sci majors become communications majors, since many of the requirements are cross-listed. The problem is, comm students have to take a 300 level linguistics class, which i can assure you, is at least as difficult and technically demanding as teh aforesaid 300 level comp sci class. However, the prof teaching the ling class is forced to take on 10 X (you read that correctly-TEN TIMES) the number of usual students in this class. The atmosphere is disrupted, and the majority of students are failing. What does the administation do? threaten to pull grant funding from the entire department unless more comm students pass that class. So WHY does MY department and not comp sci get pressured to push through these second hand students? grrrrrrrrrr

[Lydia Leftcoast]

49. Evidence of grade inflation

Do you remember The American Experience program on environmentalist and marine biologist Rachel Carson?

The documentary talked about how she had always been interested in writing, and it showed one of the papers that she had written during college.

Scrawled across the top was the large notation: "Excellent!--B+"

[kiahzero]

54. God forbid a school try to encourage good study habits

The Harvard-educated Swinton acknowledged he would not implement such a policy at a more selective institution and does not know of a similar policy at any other college.

But he said Benedict is unique. Founded in 1870 to educate freed slaves, the college has been a haven for students who must overcome barriers to obtain higher education. Many are the first in their families to attend college.

With its open-admissions policy, Swinton said, many students arrive at Benedict with poor study habits and weak high school records. His job, he said, is to help them succeed.

Those bastards... trying to make college educations more accessible! Let's all ignore what the story is actually talking about, and discuss slackers who complain about their grades!

:eyes:

[Lucky Luciano]

57. Grade Inflation sucks

I TAed at UCLA for mathematics and did encounter some who would try to get me to push their grades up, but I always reminded them that I had no influence over grades (except that I did grade one or two questions on every exam - that is all - no record keeping of grades for me though) - it is all up to the professor. I tended to be not too sympathetic to their causes though when they tried to argue for a higher grade, but I let them know in a nice way and all the students liked me.

The way I graded a question on a math test was very simple. The point at which you make your first mistake is where I draw a line and usually everything below it is complete crap because it is based on a false premise. This generated a lot of complaints with a particular question asked on a mathematical modeling test - the question was difficult, but if the students made a glaring error (That every single one of them made) that we assumed to be correct, then the problem became kind of trivial. The students argued that they should only lose one point out of ten for the error, but the error made everything from that point on completely moot - COMPLETELY! As it happened, a coincidence made the final answers the same, but for COMPLETELY wrong reasons. I gave most students a four out of ten because none of them saw the complicated thing needed to come to the correct solution. The four points were because they were correct up to the point where the error was made.

Now, if a student makes a minor error (like a missing negative sign or something), then I will often continue reading a solution and will often not take any points off at all. I crucify logic blunders and almost ignore careless calculation blunders from a grading point of view.


The worst students to have are pre-med. These nightmares will really pound you for every point they can get because otherwise "I can't get into medical school." I really want to tell them "Go cry to your fucking mommy you wuss - not me," but I reist the urge. The worst was when a calculus student was really pounding another TA to the point where she had to say something and it came out as "Look - If you can't handle something as trivial as calculus, then I sure as hell don't think you should be a doctor because that requires more intelligence than mere calculus." My roommate taught caluclus at Pomona college last Spring and he had a lot of troubles with the Pre-Med students there too - and a lot complained to the dean, but he didn't give a shit and gave them tough grades anyway. The dean was pressuring for grade inflation too.

I say fuck effort - reults only - the bottom line. If I was graded on effort, I would have a damn near failing grade myself! I was a party boy that happened to be good at math. I took pride in my grade to work ratio - that is a high grade for minimal effort. If someone worked very hard to get an A, I was far less impressed with them than I was with a student who did barely any work and achieved the same result. Later in life these students should be prepared to know that only reults matter - not the effort.