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Brian Howell
Jun 1, 2015, 11:10:55 AM6/1/15
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Harvard does it. Stanford does it. So do Princeton, Yale, and many other top schools. And some not-so-top schools: Kate's former employer, Golden Gate University (GGU) does it. Of course I'm talking about grade inflation.
In the 1950s, the median undergraduate grade at Harvard was a C+.
Quartz (a unit of The Atlantic) has an article up that the self-reported mean GPA of graduating Harvard seniors is 3.64 and that more than 1/2 of the students earned GPAs of 3.67, or an A-. I first started reading about this issue at least a decade and a half ago. At the time, a spokesman for Harvard stated that the students they accept, having earned A's all their lives, would be crushed if they suddenly found themselves earning B's, C's, and, oh woe, D's and F's. Other articles I've read on the subject say that more representative grades would impair students' abilities to pursue top-tier graduate programs and land internships and later employment with top employers. Other Ivies and first-tier institutions make similar claims.
Dartmouth, for its part, just recently announced a crackdown on inflated grades, but the proposal has no provisions for curving grades or mandating a particular distribution. Instead, it wants to make its classes more “challenging.”
A professor at the University of Connecticut argues that American grade inflation is a consequence of cultural orthodoxy.
I inflate my grades. Our cultural rubric of American exceptionalism requires that I do so. Not even Princeton University can hold the line against giving too many A's. When I began teaching in 1979, I stood on principle and assigned grades for large introductory classes using a bell curve. I quickly learned that I was penalizing my students relative to their classmates, raising anxiety, fueling parent conflict, inviting lower teacher evaluations and getting a whole lot less done. By the time I reached UConn in 1984, I had stopped paddling against the current and joined the mainstream.
Besides enabling students to advance through their programs, GGU's inflation arguably also serves to help students feel better about themselves and their collegiate progress (GGU caters to “continuing” or “returning” students), ...and helps to ensure continuing revenue from higher-paying foreign students.
Some schools have taken steps to mitigate inflation: more than a decade ago, Princeton and Wellesley imposed caps on A grades (no more than 35%; AKA grade deflation). But it hasn't worked as expected: instead of a statistically meaningful reduction across all grades, the result instead has simply been a precipitous drop at the threshold, with more B+ grade being given. Now Princeton is reinflating its grades and Wellesley is considering it.
One potential justification for grade inflation at that these schools is that (some) professors are using linear grading systems: grading each student's work solely against a set of objective standards and milestones; not even exams are not graded on a curve. And given that their students are uniformly lifelong super-achievers who routinely excel, is it unreasonable for so many of them therefore to earn high grades?
But GGU, a fourth-tier institution, also suffers from grade inflation, with the median grade around a “B.” Having taken both undergraduate and graduate courses (mostly marketing) there, I can tell you that, based on English language proficiency alone, far too many A's and B's are being awarded. GGU uses a practicum-based method of teaching; most classes require one or more group projects with 3-5 students working together. Based upon what I saw (read had to rewrite), I'd say that well less than 20% of my fellow students could write a coherent, well-structured basic business-style English document. Admittedly, some of this is owing to the large number of Asian (e.g., Chinese and Korean) students admitted by the university. Nonetheless, there is an expectation—and a proficiency requirement—for basic competency in written English that is clearly not being met. Indeed, a professor of Business Writing at GGU, whom I befriended, stopped teaching in disgust because she was being pushed to advance students (give them a passing grade) when they weren't technically qualified—both undergraduate and graduate students. The school doesn't want them to drop out. In other words, GGU's inflation is being driven in part by revenue objectives.
And isn't Harvard also pursuing revenue, really? If the Ivies started graded on a curve and 50% of their students graduated with a "C" average, do you think that they would continue to attract wealthy scions as students or generous gifts from graduates? Or am I being too cynical?
A recent article from The Atlantic posits a “European” solution to grade inflation: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/10/does-england-have-the-solution-to-the-grade-inflation-problem/381571/
References
jack saunders
Jun 1, 2015, 2:30:00 PM6/1/15
to Brian Howell, Ipse-...@googlegroups.com
Students weep and beg. A C grade will ruin their lives, get them fired by the boss who is paying the tuition, caused traditional Asian families to disown them as failures. All I can do to preserve my sense of integrity is to then REQUIRE that they earn an A. This adds, I would estimate, 300 hours to my costs -- daily editing term papers via TrackChanges (minute instructions, not just on structure and grammar, but on new research and alternative framing -- over and over and over, until they are publishable papers, the genuine article. Then everybody's legitimately happy. The average student takes 8 drafts. Present company was exceptional....maybe 5. Or was it 6?
From: Brian Howell <bdho...@gmail.com>
To: Ipse-...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, June 1, 2015 8:10 AM
Subject: [Ipse Dixit] Grade Inflation
Harvard does it. Stanford does it. So do Princeton, Yale, and many other top schools. And some not-so-top schools: Kate's former employer, Golden Gate University (GGU) does it. Of course I'm talking about grade inflation.
In the 1950s, the median undergraduate grade at Harvard was a C+.
Quartz (a unit of The Atlantic) has an article up that the self-reported mean GPA of graduating Harvard seniors is 3.64 and that more than 1/2 of the students earned GPAs of 3.67, or an A-. I first started reading about this issue at least a decade and a half ago. At the time, a spokesman for Harvard stated that the students they accept, having earned A's all their lives, would be crushed if they suddenly found themselves earning B's, C's, and, oh woe, D's and F's. Other articles I've read on the subject say that more representative grades would impair students' abilities to pursue top-tier graduate programs and land internships and later employment with top employers. Other Ivies and first-tier institutions make similar claims.
Dartmouth, for its part, just recently announced a crackdown on inflated grades, but the proposal has no provisions for curving grades or mandating a particular distribution. Instead, it wants to make its classes more “challenging.”
A professor at the University of Connecticut argues that American grade inflation is a consequence of cultural orthodoxy.
I inflate my grades. Our cultural rubric of American exceptionalism requires that I do so. Not even Princeton University can hold the line against giving too many A's. When I began teaching in 1979, I stood on principle and assigned grades for large introductory classes using a bell curve. I quickly learned that I was penalizing my students relative to their classmates, raising anxiety, fueling parent conflict, inviting lower teacher evaluations and getting a whole lot less done. By the time I reached UConn in 1984, I had stopped paddling against the current and joined the mainstream.
Besides enabling students to advance through their programs, GGU's inflation arguably also serves to help students feel better about themselves and their collegiate progress (GGU caters to “continuing” or “returning” students), ...and helps to ensure continuing revenue from higher-paying foreign students.
Some schools have taken steps to mitigate inflation: more than a decade ago, Princeton and Wellesley imposed caps on A grades (no more than 35%; AKA grade deflation) early in the century. But it hasn't worked as expected: instead of a statistically meaningful reduction across all grades, the result instead has simply been a precipitous drop at the threshold, with more B+ grade being given. Now Princeton is reinflating its grades and Wellesley is considering it.
One potential justification for grade inflation at that these schools is that (some) professors are using linear grading systems: grading each student's work solely against a set of objective standards and milestones; not even exams are not graded on a curve. And given that their students are uniformly lifelong super-achievers who routinely excel, is it unreasonable for so many of them therefore to earn high grades?
But GGU, a fourth-tier institution, also suffers from grade inflation, with the median grade around a “B.” Having taken both undergraduate and graduate courses (mostly marketing) there, I can tell you that, based on English language proficiency alone, far too many A's and B's are being awarded. GGU uses a practicum-based method of teaching; most classes require one or more group projects with 3-5 students working together. Based upon what I saw (read had to rewrite), I'd say that well less than 20% of my fellow students could write a coherent, well-structured basic business-style English document. Admittedly, some of this is owing to the large number of Asian (e.g., Chinese and Korean) students admitted by the university. Nonetheless, there is an expectation—and a proficiency requirement—for basic competency in written English that is clearly not being met. Indeed, a professor of Business Writing at GGU, whom I befriended, stopped teaching in disgust because she was being pushed to advance students (give them a passing grade) when they weren't technically qualified—both undergraduate and graduate students. The school doesn't want them to drop out. In other words, GGU's inflation is being driven in part by revenue objectives.
And isn't Harvard also pursuing revenue, really? If the Ivies started graded on a curve and 50% of their students graduated with a "C" average, do you think that they would continue to attract wealthy scions as students or generous gifts from graduates? Or am I being too cynical?
A recent article from The Atlantic posits a “European” solution to grade inflation: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/10/does-england-have-the-solution-to-the-grade-inflation-problem/381571/
References
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Craig Good
Jun 1, 2015, 2:40:14 PM6/1/15
to Brian Howell, Ipse-...@googlegroups.com
I was That Guy in high school: I didn’t care about grades. I’ve never been motivated by them. Nothing I’ve learned in the intervening decades has changed my mind.
Of course, I also didn’t do a “higher education”. While respecting those who do, I think that schooling is often conflated with education. They aren’t the same thing. So while I care not a whit for grades, I love learning and value education.
On Jun 1, 2015, at 08:10 AM, Brian Howell <bdho...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Harvard does it. Stanford does it. So do Princeton, Yale, and many other top schools.
--
--Craig WWJGD?
clg...@me.com http://www.craig-good.com
"Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We
cannot be too careful to exclude its influence."
--Alexander Hamilton
Of course, I also didn’t do a “higher education”. While respecting those who do, I think that schooling is often conflated with education. They aren’t the same thing. So while I care not a whit for grades, I love learning and value education.
On Jun 1, 2015, at 08:10 AM, Brian Howell <bdho...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Harvard does it. Stanford does it. So do Princeton, Yale, and many other top schools.
--Craig WWJGD?
clg...@me.com http://www.craig-good.com
"Foreign influence is truly the Grecian horse to a republic. We
cannot be too careful to exclude its influence."
--Alexander Hamilton
jack saunders
Jun 1, 2015, 3:11:19 PM6/1/15
to Craig Good, Brian Howell, Ipse-...@googlegroups.com
This is not the first time I've meditated on Craig and his gang, which must be sizable.....not the big pack who didn't give a shit about grades, but the smaller subset that had deep value for learning and education.
Why can't I get some of those kids in my class?
Brian was one. Sam Singer (from the same neighborhood) was another. But they had both come up the more conventional way. I'm interested in somehow discovering and guiding those who went away from high school still hungry, just sick of the slop they were being fed.
I think you do learn quickly upon sampling college that the slop there is at least of a different order. At least the content is sorta well gathered into piles with the major linkages explicit. Organic chemistry goes with chemistry. Statistics keeps popping up in every field. You get a sense of what people are looking for.
But the lecturing method is plainly not the best, or anything close.
We teach the young by having them do.....then inspecting their efforts closely....pointing out holes in logic, and trying again, and again....until they have learned spot discoveries, share them around, build on them....all by themselves. That's the educated person.
This is not that hard. My methods are admittedly labor intensive. This kind of education can't be offered on an industrial scale. But for Craig and his few friends, some tech billionaire should open the Academy of Advanced Thought and take in only those who have somehow avoided college.
They must be ready to work their fucking asses off under faculty who will grant them 24/7 access as learned co-authors of their interests.... whatever they may be. The academy would bring in special adjuncts to consult on technical questions. But the resident faculty would be men and women of letters, those with a passion for finding truth and sharing it to best impact.....fully cognizant that just the decision on what "best impact" is by itself a weighty and unrushed meditation.
From: Craig Good <clg...@me.com>
To: Brian Howell <bdho...@gmail.com>
Cc: Ipse-...@googlegroups.com
Sent: Monday, June 1, 2015 11:40 AM
Subject: Re: [Ipse Dixit] Grade Inflation
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Craig Good
Jun 1, 2015, 3:30:49 PM6/1/15
to jack saunders, Brian Howell, Ipse-...@googlegroups.com
On Jun 1, 2015, at 12:11 PM, jack saunders <jack...@pacbell.net> wrote:
> They must be ready to work their fucking asses off under faculty who will grant them 24/7 access as learned co-authors of their interests.... whatever they may be.
I also benefit, I’m sure, from having had an autodidact father who worked the NYT crossword puzzle in pen, and who taught me as a kid how to entertain myself with a dictionary.
Out of the swamp it came. Mindless. Hungry. Could anything stop it?
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