Comments on: More Grade Inflation Nonsense

By: Signifying Nothing

Signifying Nothing — Wed, 26 Jan 2005 00:29:35 +0000

Grade stagflation Since before Robert's post on this topic, I've been pondering grades in general, prompted by this post by Will Baude relating his experience at Yale, where he hasn't yet "taken any classes that attempt to draw actual distinctions among the...

By: Moebius Stripper

Moebius Stripper — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 07:49:01 +0000

I wrote at length on this subject a posted a few days ago, here - and I also noticed the horribly misguided trend of judging an intructor's performance strictly on a class average. It's pretty maddening. But I take issue with this statement of yours - The fact of the matter is that students at Ivy League schools should be getting a disproportionate number of As -- otherwise, why were they admitted? - which all but gives Ivy Leaguers the blessing to rest on their laurels and slack off, because after all, the mere fact that they were admitted to top schools is enough to earn them A's. I don't agree that those students should be getting A's by virtue of the smarts that got them into good schools; rather, I think that their smarts merit giving them more challeging classes, in which a B means more than an A would mean at another school. The purpose of university courses, as I see them, is to educate students to achieve at their potential - not to merely to rank them based on how well they compare on how well they learn material that may be challenging to some students, but an absolute cakewalk to others. (This is why some of my least favourite students are my A students - not all of them, but the ones who have already seen the material in my class and who are taking it for the easy grade.)

By: Tall, Dark, and Mysterious

Tall, Dark, and Mysterious — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 07:40:38 +0000

Grade inflation
At the two universities where I've taught, the only supervision neophyte teachers received from the senior faculty came in the form of making sure that the marks - the average marks we gave in our classes were okay. Every few weeks, I'd be asked how ...

By: Slowplay.com

Slowplay.com — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 06:04:02 +0000

Princeton's fight against grade inflation a complete non-issue If you are attending Princeton, you should be smart enough to realize the irrelevance of Princeton's recent attempt to battle "grade inflation". The crackdown on high grades, part of a national battle against grade inflation at elite schools, has...

By: The Education Wonks

The Education Wonks — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 01:22:54 +0000

Grade Inflation At Princeton University
Stotch is a professor at a major university. He correctly points out that many school administrators...

By: Vox Baby

Vox Baby — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 19:55:56 +0000

Grade Inflation
Several interesting posts yesterday by academics reacting to Princeton's new policy. Here at Dartmouth, we include the course median grades on the transcript. It's a good start, but only a start.

By: Davod

Davod — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 10:08:57 +0000

PS:

America is not the onkly country with educational problems. I just read that in the UK ths scoring had been adjusted so that to pass the equivelent of, I think, the SAT, the minimum mark to pass was 17 out of a hundred. The government agreed to the changes and is praising the increase in the number of students passing the courses. Talk about sick. How long will these students be able to hold a job, if the can get one.

By: Davod

Davod — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 10:03:54 +0000

I agree with your comments. I could never understand the proportional allocation of grades {that may not be what it is called.} If most people in a class do the work and their work reflects the highest standards you can aspire to then those people should be marked appropriately. I used to hate it when a teacher would tell you before the start of the course how the grades were going to pan out.

The problem I have is with teachers who really shouldn't be teaching.

By: PoliBlog: Politics is the Master Science

PoliBlog: Politics is the Master Science — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 22:59:25 +0000

Administering Universities
Leopold Stotch (a pseudonymous political science professor), blogging at OTB is angry over Princeton University's decision to cap A's at 35% per class--effectively creating an official semi-curve.

Without getting into the issue of grade inflation ...

By: Signifying Nothing

Signifying Nothing — Sat, 22 Jan 2005 21:37:24 +0000

Grade inflation Leopold Stotch at OTB is indignant over Princeton's new policy of capping the number of A's at 35% of the class. I'm a little new to academia, but I'm not sure the policy is as objectionable as he seems to...

By: PoliBlog: Politics is the Master Science » Administering Universities

PoliBlog: Politics is the Master Science » Administering Universities — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

[...] aylor @ 4:49 pm
Leopold Stotch (a pseudonymous political science professor), blogging at OTB is angry over Princeton University’s decision to cap A’s at 35% per class–ef [...]

By: Slowplay.com » Princeton’s fight against grade inflation a complete non-issue

Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

[...] nobody on a med school admissions board ever read this article in USA Today… More: Outside the Beltway Interested Participant Signifying Nothing Nathan J. Novak at 12:01 am [...]