tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post4431933306830976630..comments2024-03-28T02:54:46.537-04:00Comments on The TOF Spot: A is for AverageTheOFloinnhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14756711106266484327noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-9321107802556397842012-06-12T21:43:24.328-04:002012-06-12T21:43:24.328-04:00Sorry, that was sloppy. 40% plus of all course gra...Sorry, that was sloppy. 40% plus of all course grades assigned to undergraduates, not 40% of all undergraduates.introvert.profhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09042783611716432247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-39224882416177256632012-06-12T21:42:05.179-04:002012-06-12T21:42:05.179-04:00The graph and analysis are interesting. But the pr...The graph and analysis are interesting. But the problem is that (like Lisa Simpson) we've gotten to the point where we need to add multiple plus-signs to the grade of A in order to distinguish the exceptional from the merely pretty good.<br /><br />A survey published in the <i>Teachers College Record</i> and discussed in <i><a href="http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2011/07/14/researchers_publish_new_analysis_of_grade_inflation" rel="nofollow">Inside Higher Education</a></i> doesn't look at GPA but at how often the grade of "A" is assigned. The frequency ranges from 39% at public, commuter schools to 48% at private, non-profit colleges and universities. <br /><br />Yes, you read that right. 40% plus <strong>of all undergraduates</strong> are being awarded the grade of A. A substantial majority of the remaining grades are B's, with C/D/F grades making up 15-25% of the total.introvert.profhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09042783611716432247noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-80116376774354058352012-06-04T22:09:54.759-04:002012-06-04T22:09:54.759-04:00IMHO, the Vietnam war accounts for the rapid incre...IMHO, the Vietnam war accounts for the rapid increase in average GPA seen during that same period. Attending college meant not being subject to the draft. College professors, who were by and large anti-war, awarded grades so as to avoid flunking students out and thereby eliminating their deferment. The consequence was to significantly raise grades on the low end, thereby raising the average.Hey Skipperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10798930502187234974noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-87794012228487120222012-06-01T03:16:34.668-04:002012-06-01T03:16:34.668-04:00Are we missing a third chart?
Also, picked up In ...Are we missing a third chart?<br /><br />Also, picked up <i>In the Lion's Mouth</i> from Larry Smith at Balticon but haven't started it yet, though it's in the queue.<br /><br /><br />JJBAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-80214902929563460592012-05-31T23:57:07.551-04:002012-05-31T23:57:07.551-04:00Maybe this is my ignorance speaking, but Brandon&#...Maybe this is my ignorance speaking, but Brandon's strikes me as a sound analysis.The Ubiquitoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08395703772492059721noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-447603865959500290.post-66392721395869965322012-05-31T18:12:37.431-04:002012-05-31T18:12:37.431-04:00I confess I find myself highly skeptical of the no...I confess I find myself highly skeptical of the notion of 'grade inflation'; there certainly have been shifts, but I think thinking of it as an inflation usually involves assuming that there's a unified thing to be inflated, when in fact there never was, and this is even less true today. Grading policies vary from school to school, and often school grading policies are loose enough that they can vary considerably from professor to professor in the same school. And even where the policies are very strict, it doesn't make much sense to treat an A in electrical engineering as if it meant the same thing as an A in creative writing, if it were even possible to figure out a way to give such courses a common measurement. <br /><br />My own suspicion -- it is only such, of course -- is that what we're really seeing is shifts in agreements over assessment methods and grading philosophies; e.g., as professors have been encouraged to be more creative with their classes and allowed to be more creative with their assessments, everyone has gone their own way (the gray dots, as you note). And it's possibly notable that the pattern of difference among private, public, and community colleges is pretty much the pattern you'd expect in terms of how much freedom professors are allowed for deciding their own policies.Brandonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06698839146562734910noreply@blogger.com