Posted on 07/18/2017 7:57:37 AM PDT by Signalman
Also, students have no idea of how to properly study for an exam.
If you look at the average score at the top 50 Public Universities in the country with STEM degrees, most will say they accept either the ACT or SAT but when they report their average scores they only report the SAT score.
My son was wait listed with a score of 1540 at a Major Engineering School ( he got in! )
50 to 60 percent of all entering college freshman at the nations Public or Land Grant Universities must take remedial mathematics and English classes before they can begin their required freshman classes.
A degree without an integral and differential calculus requirement and a hard science like chemistry of physics nowadays is considered to be a 5th year of High School by many employers. It essentially answers questions about an individual that are now illegal to ask or test for in a job interview.
“A” grades have become like participation trophies in youth sports; just for showing up and turning in the assignment, you get an “A.” If you show up and turn in half the assignments, you get a “B.” If you show up and turn in a few assignments, you get a “C.” If you show up and don’t turn in any assignments, you get a “D.” If you show up and beat up the teacher, you get a special tutor.
Just curious - did they choose the curve, because they didn’t understand it?
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/sites/default/files/documents/Pathways_to_Prosperity_Feb2011-1.pdf
More from the above Harvard study:
“Only 56 percent of
those enrolling in a four-year college attain a bachelor’s
degree after six years, and less than 30 percent of those
who enroll in community college succeed in obtaining an
associate’s degree within three years.
These outcomes are even more dismal for young people
of color: only 30 percent of African-Americans and fewer
than 20 percent of Latinos in their mid-20s have an
associate’s degree or higher.
The impending retirement
of the Baby Boom generation will only exacerbate this
problem. Today’s young adults are far more diverse than
previous generations of Americans. By 2030 citizens of color will make up 45 percent of the working-age
population, up from just 18 percent in 1980.”
In other words, the educated white workers that make our country (and the world) go round are retiring and won’t be replaced. It’ll be sort of like what’s happened to Africa during the last 50 years.
My problem with grading on a curve is this:
What if the material studied is something very easy to test, for example the whole class is learning simultaneous equations in algebra.
At the end of the learning period (x number of weeks) there is an exam on the subject.
What if all the kids get most of the questions right, and the results are in the range 92-100.
Should the kid who gets a 92 get a D or F?
Alternatively, what if the whole class stinks at it and the range is 50-59.
Should the kid with a 59 get an A?
I remember one time in a chemistry class I took in college, one of the students asked the prof if he grades on a curve.
He said: “Well, a C has a curve. So does a D. B has two curves. No curve in an A. F likewise has no curves.”
These cheap A’s are being used as clubs to keep kids who went to tough schools from being accepted to some California Universities.
Some of their acceptance programs basically only use each student’s grade point for admittance to their impacted programs.
Imagine if your child has gone to a good and expensive private high school and had all A’s and 2 B’s in their 4 years at this high school. The child was graduated with highest honors from this good school.
Then, that child is turned down as their grade point is not a 4 point. That allows out of state students with a 4.0 to come in and pay out of state tuition, higher cost. There is no validation of the standards of the out of state schools or other schools in California.
This recent high school graduate’s mother cracked this regressive code, and they had their child apply to good private schools out of state. Their new graduate was accepted at every school they tried.
One excellent private university not only accepted the new graduate, they offered a scholarship over $20,000 per year.
So is this covert discrimination only happening at California Universities or is it nationwide?
I also have this question. I believe that the SAT scores peaked in 1962, and have not approached that level since, but the test underwent a major revision in the mid 1970’s making comparisons difficult or meaningless. Is there any widely used standardized test that has remained the same through the years?
“Additionally, the study found that only 56% of those students end up completing a four-year degree within six years of entering college.”
I understand the point of the article, but this point has more to do with $$$ than it does with intelligence, or the quality of education a student is provided.
I think it would be rare for an entire class to score ultra high or ultra low on a test, or more importantly, over the course of an entire semester. And if it started to steer that way, teachers could ‘calibrate’ the difficulty level. Like any competitive event, people tend to spread out.
By my point is, if everyone in a class is learning the material (I prefer to drop the case of no one learning it, because then it might be an issue of whether it is the right material for that group at that time or maybe it’s a teacher problem)...
If everyone in a class is doing well, do you HAVE to have some D’s and C’s?
If I remember correctly, in my high school geometry class in the 9th grade, almost everyone in the class “got it”. Should those who were 1 or 2 points behind have been given a low grade?
The schools and teachers don't care, they just look better if their students are all on the honor roll.
When I got my undergraduate degree from the flagship state university in 1979, someone was recognized for being the first person graduate with a perfect 4.0 GPA in long period of time (15, 20 years something like that). BTW, it wasn't me. I now teach at a similar university and it doesn't even take the time to acknowledge the 4.0 graduates because it is not that uncommon (probably, a couple of hundred out of 5-6,000 graduates).
Bush’s “no child left behind” is working. Give them all passing grades and the number if “A”s will increase. None left behind in high school. He should have included College.
No doubt the Educratic Establishment’s solution to this “problem” is to dumb down the SATs in the same way that they’ve dumbed down school curricula. Then, just like everyone gets an “A” for participation, everyone can score a 1500 or higher just for filling in their names on the test sheet (with extra points if you check some racial minority box).
I think whoever wrote the article failed in the Title and fist sentence. A’s? Shouldn’t it be “A”s
What, Fonzie’s approvals are now possessive?
Somewhat typical, but frankly stupid. NATIONALLY, we could grade on a curve, if what we wanted was a relative ranking system that put people in their place relative to others.
But in a single class, or even 3-4 classes in one semester? How would you know whether the 20th-best kid in that particular set of students was better, or worse, than the 40th-best kid in the last semester’s group?
If I were a teacher, my goal would be to teach every kid so well that they all got 100s. I know that won’t happen, but it seems self-immolating to say “I don’t care how much all of you learn, because I’m going to grade you as if you represent the “average” class where most people don’t learn”
BTW, I was first in my college graduation class, in part because most of the top students did a summmer program at Oxford, where they graded on a strict curve, so 85% of the top students came back with a “B” or lower grade.
Yeah, but with an “A” average, they feel better about themselves.
We got an extra point for “honors” courses, so your GPA was based on how many honors courses you wanted to take. I had a GPA above 4 but was barely in the top 5%. That was in 1977.
In fact, I audited a debate class my senior year, turned out I was pretty good at it, my partner really better, and we won the novice category in our state. Teacher decided to reward me by making me official and giving me an “A” in the class.
That pulled my GPA down.
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