How Teacher Evaluations Broke the University
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/teacher-evaluation-grade-inflation-doom-120000295.html
“We give them all A’s, and they give us all fives.”
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/teacher-evaluation-grade-inflation-doom-120000295.html
“We give them all A’s, and they give us all fives.”
Related:
Your A student is average — don’t blame the SAT and ACT
David Blobaum:
The most common refrain from parents is that their child “is a good student but a bad test-taker.” This comment reveals a fundamental disconnect between what parents understand about grades from school and standardized test scores. So here’s what parents need to understand about seemingly divergent grades and test scores, to help them position their kids for academic success.
Some students are, in fact, just bad test takers, which typically means they don’t perform well under pressure. But, in my experience tutoring thousands of students, this explanation only applies to a small percentage of students. In most cases, an alternate explanation is true: Despite having a sky-high GPA in honors classes, the student is actually just an average student.
According to UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute Freshman Survey, 86 percent of the surveyed students at BA-granting universities had A-averages in high school. Thus, A-averages are not rare at all. They are, in fact, average.
David Blobaum:
The most common refrain from parents is that their child “is a good student but a bad test-taker.” This comment reveals a fundamental disconnect between what parents understand about grades from school and standardized test scores. So here’s what parents need to understand about seemingly divergent grades and test scores, to help them position their kids for academic success.
Some students are, in fact, just bad test takers, which typically means they don’t perform well under pressure. But, in my experience tutoring thousands of students, this explanation only applies to a small percentage of students. In most cases, an alternate explanation is true: Despite having a sky-high GPA in honors classes, the student is actually just an average student.
According to UCLA’s Higher Education Research Institute Freshman Survey, 86 percent of the surveyed students at BA-granting universities had A-averages in high school. Thus, A-averages are not rare at all. They are, in fact, average.
AWOL from Academics
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/03/university-people-the-undergraduate-balance
In stark contrast, English professor James Engell told me that when he was a Harvard student, “there was a sense…that the primary reason for your being in the College was to take courses, and to spend a lot of time on them”—a belief which, in his eyes, has “eroded some.” Indeed, data from the Crimson’s senior survey indicates that students devote nearly as much time collectively to extracurriculars, athletics, and employment as to their classes…
HALF OF THE BLAME can be assigned to grade inflation, which has fundamentally changed students’ incentives during the past several decades. Rising grades permit mediocre work to be scored highly, and students have reacted by scaling back academic effort. I can’t count the number of times I’ve guiltily turned in work far below my best, betting that the assignment will nonetheless receive high marks.
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/03/university-people-the-undergraduate-balance
In stark contrast, English professor James Engell told me that when he was a Harvard student, “there was a sense…that the primary reason for your being in the College was to take courses, and to spend a lot of time on them”—a belief which, in his eyes, has “eroded some.” Indeed, data from the Crimson’s senior survey indicates that students devote nearly as much time collectively to extracurriculars, athletics, and employment as to their classes…
HALF OF THE BLAME can be assigned to grade inflation, which has fundamentally changed students’ incentives during the past several decades. Rising grades permit mediocre work to be scored highly, and students have reacted by scaling back academic effort. I can’t count the number of times I’ve guiltily turned in work far below my best, betting that the assignment will nonetheless receive high marks.
The Long View of Higher Ed’s Decline
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-long-view-of-higher-eds-decline-college-university-professor-conservative-harvard-96bb22a5
Mr. Mansfield also argues that the ills of grade inflation have seeped into wider American society. “One of the things grade inflation does is to rob students of knowledge of what they’re good at, and not so good at.” Ostensible success in school “doesn’t tell employers whether the graduates of college are good at something. It robs us of necessary information.” That’s bad for democracy, Mr. Mansfield says, “because it makes society attempt something—or satisfy itself that it’s done something—that is impossible, which is to do away with human inequalities.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-long-view-of-higher-eds-decline-college-university-professor-conservative-harvard-96bb22a5
Mr. Mansfield also argues that the ills of grade inflation have seeped into wider American society. “One of the things grade inflation does is to rob students of knowledge of what they’re good at, and not so good at.” Ostensible success in school “doesn’t tell employers whether the graduates of college are good at something. It robs us of necessary information.” That’s bad for democracy, Mr. Mansfield says, “because it makes society attempt something—or satisfy itself that it’s done something—that is impossible, which is to do away with human inequalities.”
Harvard Is Not Home to America’s Best and Brightest
Elite Colleges Need to Offer Less Affirmation. And Insist on More Work.
Frederick M. Hess:
…while workloads are down, grades are way up. Although the editorial board of the Harvard Crimson has fretted that Harvard’s students are subject to the “absurd expectation of constant productivity,” grade inflation has been pervasive at selective colleges in recent decades. (Harvard’s average GPA climbed from 3.0 in 1967 to 3.8 in 2022). And elite college students know that, once admitted, they needn’t worry about earning a diploma—since their institutions brag about their 96 percent completion rates. …
If students aren’t studying, working, or hanging out with friends, what exactly are they doing? That’s the question. For one thing, college-age youth spend an extraordinary amount of time online, swiping through videos and scrolling social media.
If Everyone Gets an A, No One Gets an A
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/opinion/grade-inflation-high-school.html
Tim Donahue:
Also, it’s just so much easier to give good grades!
But when so many adolescent egos rest upon this collective, timorous deflection, it doesn’t do an awful lot of good. Passing off the average as exceptional with bromides like “wonderful” and “impressive” soothes the soul, but if there’s nothing there to modify these adjectives, teachers do little service to their colleagues who receive these students the next year…
It’s so easy to see grades as sheer commodities that we all but overlook their actual purpose — so far as I know — of providing feedback.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/opinion/grade-inflation-high-school.html
Tim Donahue:
Also, it’s just so much easier to give good grades!
But when so many adolescent egos rest upon this collective, timorous deflection, it doesn’t do an awful lot of good. Passing off the average as exceptional with bromides like “wonderful” and “impressive” soothes the soul, but if there’s nothing there to modify these adjectives, teachers do little service to their colleagues who receive these students the next year…
It’s so easy to see grades as sheer commodities that we all but overlook their actual purpose — so far as I know — of providing feedback.
Teachers Can’t Hold Students Accountable. It’s Making the Job Miserable.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/04/opinion/teachers-grades-students-parents.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/04/opinion/teachers-grades-students-parents.html