Posted on 12/03/2008 2:59:53 AM PST by ComputerGuy
I must be living in Lake Wobegon, that mythical Minnesota town that my fellow Anokaian Garrison Keillor created where all the children are above average.
(Excerpt) Read more at teachers.net ...
I’m totally against lowering grade standards to the point of eliminating failing grades.
However, over the years we’ve seen some weird grading differences in colleges my kid has attended. The school he received his BA from gave lowered grade point for an A- (anything below a 94), but not a higher grade point for a solid A (go figure)...the grad school he’s in has a weird A, A/B, B, B/C, etc. scale, but both schools have given F’s, in fact he has a friend who failed a course last term (I wasn’t sure they did that sort of thing at grad school because of the expensive tuition, I wondered if they made accommodations for extra work, etc. in order to bring up your grade. But no, they’ll still give you an F if you deserve it, and his friend had to repeat the course.)
That being said, the part about getting a grade point higher than a 4.0 is nothing new. I went to high school almost 40 years ago and I graduated with a grade point above 4.0. It had to do with what were then called “honors classes”...you received a 5.0 for an A in an honors class, thus the higher than 4.0 GPA.
Exactly. Raising the grades while lowering the standards gives people the false sense of security that they are actually doing better individually, when the truth is that the entire system is doing worse. It’s the same way with redistributing the wealth.
www.teachers.net/mentors/politics - I’ll check that out. Thank you.
I concur with your assessment.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, I felt the inappropriate use of the bell curve on many occasion.
I remember receiving my only failing grade in a graduate computer science design course I took as an undergrad, had the highest mid-term and final exam grades in the class of about 50 grad students, but was failed because I couldn’t get all my homework assignments in on time. I was taking over 21 hours of a solid science-engineering curriculum that semester and didn’t have more than about 4 to 4-1/2 hrs of sleep in any 24 hr period throughout the year, with all other time devoted to study, including eating and bathroom time.
The injustice in that assessment is apparent when exposed to people who pass a Microsoft credential and are considered experts, but who are clueless as to the design of the systems they operate.
In elite institutions, those who are flunked are too frequently associated with not understanding the material by the outside world, whereas within the elite community, the failure is used more to support those who are financed to continue their effort while those not so positioned are moved out of the race.
My wife is a high school teacher. At her school, giving D’s and F’s is ‘not encouraged’ to put it mildly, especially where blacks and hispanics are concerned.
My kid’s friend (the one who failed) is a GA (so is my son.) Her failing grade put her on probation, as a GA, because of the grade...they have to maintain a 3.25 in order to retain their GA status. I’m amazed at the little sleep my kid survives on. His grad profs seem to be trying to teach a lesson...you can survive on less sleep than you’re used to, LOL. None of the profs he’s had during grad school use the Bell curve. Good thing because there’s always somebody in the course who is more than proficient in the subject, and he/she would be ruining the curve, as you said.
Let’s keep lowering those standards. Okay ?
Yeah, look what that gets you. Obama got elected as President of America
I would suggest that the practice is cruel. The goal of bad grades, like bad medical test readings, is to alert the student and their parents to a problem that needs to be addressed. The American public has deluded themselves into thinking that they can drop their little cherubs off at school and a miracle will occur - an educated adult will come out the end of the pipeline without effort on the part of parent or student. The inconvenient truth is that parents, teachers, administrators, and students all need to be fully committed and engaged for the educational process to succeed.
The sad part is, given global competition, such a deceptive practice insures that the product of such an education will be ill-prepared to succeed in a competitive world. Can't you just see the unprepared, clueless dupes - spending a lifetime working in fast food or basic retail, struggling to make ends meet, wondering why life sucks, and looking for someone to blame - and a bailout? A really sad result, given record educational spending by taxpayers.
C is the new F.
” Let’s keep lowering those standards. Okay ?
Yeah, look what that gets you. Obama got elected as President of America “
Good analysis. Try the street test, and ask Obama supporters the main economic reasons, including their long term impacts, and see if they pass.
Most don’t know for example the effects of hiking capital gains taxes, or the pass through effects of corporate taxation.
All they know is their “ American Idol (not sure if he really is) candidate won, and they feel good....
” Mr. Haskvitz gets it. Grade inflation is just like tampering with your cholesterol score or blood pressure reading. You give the recipient/patient a false sense of euphoria while masking a problem with long term consequences.”
My kids are both college grads, and I told both of them that 90% of what they learned they will not use in their careers unless it’s highly technical, but the 100% they will use is their ability to get info, assess it, and make a decision balancing consequences.
Happy to let you know that why they both voted against Barry, as they saw through his lip service.
Democrats imposing “grade justice”.
Happy to let you know that why they both voted against Barry, as they saw through his lip service.
My two did likewise.
” My two did likewise.’
Good for them and you. At least we have some hope for the future.
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