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Comparison of private school and public school
Grade inflation gone wild
Grade inflation gone wild
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Stuart Rojstaczer talks about how higher education in the United States has decreased substantially these days. High grades are very common among college students when they should not be that high. Schools are handing out easy A’s to those who do not deserve them, decreasing the quality of education. Even more astonishing is the fact that students are spending less time studying and more time drinking and partying, students are consuming more alcohol than ever and degrade in a really fast way. Also Stuart Rojstaczer talk about that in private schools grades are much higher than in public schools, but virtually everyone was experiencing grade inflation. In addition to that one more scientific evidence is high GPA of American students, because …show more content…
The author states that when he was a kid, he was very pleased to get a B grade and now students see those grades as mediocre to say the least. When he attended Tufts in late 1960s, a “B” in certain courses was something that he could dream about. Primack states that GPA’s across the nation have risen since the 1960’s. He believes that this issue could be due to teachers not wanting to give out bad grades in fear that students will not want to take their classes. He uses Harvard University as a prime example of a college guilty of grade inflation. “About 15 percent of Harvard Students got a B-plus or better in 1950. In 2007, more than half of all Harvard grades were in the A range.” One of the questions being proposed by him is could the grade inflation be due simply to the fact that students are getting better? Primack simply refutes this argument by stating, “Privately, many faculty members and administrators say colleges are unwilling to challenge and possibly offend students and their hovering tuition paying parents with some tough grade love.” The writer claims that “grade inflation hides laziness on the part of the students, and as long as it exists, even faculty who want to do a good job grading don’t feel they can.” The statement is based on the belief that grade inflation is the result of fearful and “scared” teachers but does not have any real evidence to back it. If in fact laziness is the problem being covered up by grade inflation, the work force could be affected badly in the future. Phil Primack seems to be addressing an audience of teachers and some students across the country. He repeatedly talks about grade inflation being on the rise and being a problem. He gives good examples that without a doubt prove that grades have in fact risen since 1960. Primack calls on the audience to act and to change the way they grade in the
In his essay, "Why Colleges Shower Their Students With A’s,” Staples claims that student grades are increasing for the wrong reasons, causing college degrees to become meaningless. Staples provides evidence that average grades have increased significantly over the last several decades, but claims that it is not because students are working harder. The real explanation for grade inflation, he argues, is the effect of grades on both students and their professors. Teachers give more A’s to receive better evaluations and increase job security. Students give more importance to their grades as a result of the rapidly increasing cost of a college education. Staples argues that modern
College can be a stressful time for students. They go to college to work on creating a better future for themselves. But sometimes everything gets so overwhelming, that they can’t do it anymore. In the article “What is College For?” I found the author Gary Gutting’s thesis to be “Nonetheless, there is incessant talk about the ‘failure’ of education” (412). Gutting proves his thesis to be true throughout the article. He makes different points as to why he thinks this epidemic of failure is happening in college. Access, dropouts, students becoming disengaged in learning, and focused mainly on studying for their jobs and careers. All of these things acting as the building blocks to one another in the epidemic of failure that is happening among
“Making the Grade” by Kurt Wiesenfeld Newsweek magazine, June 27 1996 brings to light an issue that has been glazed over by society for some time, grade inflation. It’s highly disturbing that “we lament that schoolchildren get “kicked upstairs” until they graduate from high school despite being illiterate and mathematically inept, but we seem unconcerned with college graduates whose less blatant deficiencies are far more harmful, if their accreditation exceeds their qualifications”. The issue of grade inflation is not simply an issue of students feeling entitled to higher grades than they have earned, it is a problem that directly impacts our society in a multitude of negative ways. Perhaps the “gold star” mentality started out with the good intentions of creating children with positive self-esteem, however, a direct result is lazy adults with a sense of entitlement for no reason, who lack qualifications to adequately and safely perform their jobs.
In “Grades and Money,” Steven Vogel makes it clear that he is disappointed and frustrated with what grades have become. He believes that grades have become commoditized and that students’ grades suffer because of their relation with money. Vogel also believes that students no longer take any risk with their education. I agree with Vogel that grades are being equated to money by students, that students’ work suffers because of grades, and that students no longer take risks in their educational process.
Staples wrote, “Professors at every level inflate to escape negative evaluations by students, whose opinions now figure in tenure and promotion decisions”. (935) to tell the truth, I disagree with Staples opinion. I ponder on if it really the students or is it the professor. If a couple of students leave a bad review that will not make the professor look bad if they are giving them the grades they deserve. Why are the students in charge of the professor’s job? That is a question no one can answer. There are several aspect to consider whether or not the professor could be doing the job for the money or have too much pride in letting others see them do bad. Those aspects should be taking into consideration when speaking about grade inflation. I feel as if Staples is putting more blame on the students and parents than the teachers and administrators. Even if colleges use Staples’ proposal colleges are still faced competition among online universities. Students who attend a college campus generally end up in debt causing more people to steer toward receiving their diplomas online. Therefore, grade inflation will continue to rise because of the fear among
Being a professor himself, Rojstaczer admits that he is also guilty of grade inflation. Rojstaczer describes, “If I sprinkle my classroom with the C’s some students deserve, my class will suffer from declining enrollment in future years. Low enrollment is taken as a sign of poor-quality instruction.” The author describes the challenge that he has as a professor to students and dealing with the grade inflation. According to Rojstaczer, Grade inflation is everywhere and most everyone has experienced or had done it themselves. Even though Rojstaczer is guilty of committing grade inflation, he correspondingly realizes the problems that the system and the students will have in the
Former professor of geophysics, Stuart Rojstaczer, in his informative op-ed piece, “Grade Inflation Gone Wild,” featured in “Christian Science Monitior(2009),” investigates grade inflation among universities today. Rojstaczer’s purpose is to inform and educate universities on the inflation of grades, and how an A has become the average grade among those schools. He adopts a dismissive tone when generalizing and addressing the students on their behaviors and actions. Rojstaczer found over 80 universities with data on they’re grades, using this he was able to better understand the inflation and also analyze possible solutions. His logos based writing portrays a negative connotation on todays students and their ability to achieve within the classroom. There is no hiding that the standard for grades has been on the rise sense the 1960’s, and is now at an average GPA of a 3.0, but rojstaczer may have lost his audience with his arrogant approach.
We see a constant struggle between students and professors when it comes to the grading scale. These differences make learning a hassle. “I am placed in the position of having to figure out new ways to trick them into learning by designing ingenious new ways to grade,” says Vogel (339). The present grading system pushes students to take easy classes. Students on scholarships are afraid of taking hard classes because they run the risk of loosing financial aid if their grades don’t meet the average (Vogel 339). Farber agrees, “Getting graded turns people away from hard subjects,” (334). He offers his readers a utopia free of grades. This new...
Primack sets the base for his argument by presenting a personal situation about the student who asked why the received a “low” grade when they truly didn’t deserve it. He then states his own situation when he was a student and that he himself would have craved such a good grade. He then begins to quote political officials, such as Senator Hank Brown who said “under the current systems at a lot of schools, there is no way to recognize the difference between an outstanding job and a good job”, and Rojstaczer who says “I was teaching worse, but the student response was much more positive” to explain his reasons for decreasing the students workloads. He then states percentages, dates, comparisons of fact, along with a counter argument to strengthen his own argument.
American’s education system has been entering crisis mode for a long time. Throughout the past few years, the overwhelming question “Is college needed or worth it?” While it is an opinion, there are facts that back up each answer. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” mentions that the enlightened must help the unenlightened and further their knowledge. The problem with America today is that high school students are given the option of college and that makes for less enlightened people. While it is possible to learn in the work force or Army, college is a better option. Mary Daly wrote the article “Is It Still Worth Going to College?” which talks about the statistical value of attending. Michelle Adam wrote the article “Is College Worth It?” which mentions the struggle young people are going through to even get into college. Caroline Bird wrote the chapter “Where College Fails Us” in her book The Case Against College where she
Public Schools in America for a long time were regarded as the best public schools in the world, but with the development of Asian and European schools American schools are not ranked as highly. American Public schools in 1999 were ranked sixteenth and seventeenth in science and math right behind Bangladesh. Some students are graduating from high school with little more than an inadequate ability to read and a diploma that should mean the student knows at least the core subjects. Other students are dropping out and not graduating at all. Colleges are not trusting diplomas and grade point averages as a basis of admissions because they know that with the large variety of classes that high schools offer as credit that the student may not know as much as his or her GPA says. Colleges are recalculating GPA's deleting non-core classes and evaluating SAT and ACT scores for the purpose of admissions. Colleges also have to offer more remedial classes to teach students what they should have learned in high school. Something needs to be done to reform America's public schools especially at the high school level.
The ability to gain a degree in any field of study is highly important in American society, possessing skills and knowledge over your job emphasizes the significance of higher education. Especially, for job promotions that would cause someone to make more than their fellow colleagues. In our increasingly competitive economic society, having the minimal of a high school diploma is not enough to provide financial stability nor will it help to compete in a workforce in which the best-educated are the ones that are rewarded the most. Therefore, higher education is a crucial necessity in order to move up the socioeconomic ladder and qualify for higher paying jobs. The rising costs of college, however, is making it harder for Americans to obtain
The public high schools began a grading system as a way of telling an individual how they were performing. There was no interest by the public in reporting the school’s progress at teaching. Teachers, in an effort to recognize outstanding performers, looked for a way of rewarding hard-working students for their efforts The grading structure changed from superior and excellent to A’s and B’s. This placed much of the burden of recognizing academic talent on the high schools.
Schooling and education in the past were only attended and given to rich, wealthy people and males. In the Greek education system, only males were given the opportunity to go to school, while the women and slaves stayed home and worked. Education in America has some of the average test scores and lower grades in the world, and there are many problems with the system itself. According to a poll taken by registered voters, lack of school choices wasn’t a very big issue compared to the number of votes that said that absence of parental involvement and budget cuts were. When students graduate from high school, there is a good portion that are not fully ready for college. There are at least twenty things that are very important skills in life that
A statement from the Huffington Post states, “From a very young age, we are told the importance of getting good grades. Especially in high school, we are told time and time again that our grades affect what college we will get into. While grades are extremely important, people often forget about the importance of learning, not just getting good grades. There is a difference between the grade received in a course and the amount of learning that took place in the course.” Parents and institutions should teach the importance of learning. The society around the upbringing of students emphasizes getting good grades as apposed to getting every detail and aspect mastered. School priorities should be reevaluated and changed for future students