More handpicked essays just for you.
Literature review of effective classroom management
Grade Inflation Gone Wild
Characteristics of effective classroom management
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Stuart Rojstazer, a former professor at the University of Duke recently conducted a study that stated out of two hundred colleges and universities forty percent of all grades given fell in the “A” range. (Rojstazer, Healy). An A has become the average grade students receive in college, due to various factors. Grade inflation is a much greater problem than many Americans believe it is. Greater attention needs to be brought to this issue in order for something to be done about it. It appears that schools are not as concerned as they should be about grade inflation. Only a few schools across the country have attempted to fix grade inflation. So far, not one solution has been successful. If schools across America would join forces and ideas to end grade inflation it …show more content…
Princeton’s limits on grading are also giving other schools an edge. According to a recent Princeton report, “The committee was surprised to learn that students at other schools (e.g., Harvard, Stanford, and Yale) are using our grading policy to recruit against us” (Ramplell). Their attempted to solve grade inflation has become a marketing strategy for other schools. If all schools would join together to come up for an effective solution to grade inflation it would be solved. In the meantime, Students and employers will continue to suffer the effects of inflated grades.
Many would wonder why students would have a problem with grade inflation. If they are receiving higher grades then how could it be a negative issue? If they were to look closer it is clearer to see how damaging grade inflation is. Inflated grades give students a false sense of security and confidence. When they receive an A they think they think they know the content or believe they are doing a good job, and this is misleading. They think that the amount of effort they are putting in is good enough when in reality
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
“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.”
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
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.
When a student applies to college, the GPA can be meaningless for many high school students and for college admissions it can be difficult to determine an accurate picture of a student from it. From a study concluded during 1991 to 2003 evidence shows that student GPA has risen by 12.5 percent without a rise in ACT scores. This shows that more students are receiving higher grades even though the skills haven't improved. Tests are becoming less challenging, more and more teachers are allowing students to pass courses, even if the they don't know the information.
The Consequences of Grade Inflation When students arrive at university, professors expect them to understand the material to an exceptional standard. The problem is that grade inflation is occurring more regularly in secondary schools and universities across the country and when these students’ marks are sent to universities or colleges, the student may be given multiple scholarships for something that he/she should not have earned. Grade inflation is conceived between both students and teachers, meaning that the students are given higher grades when they have inadequate learning, reading, and verbal skills, while the teachers do not have to grade as many papers as they should in the real curriculum. There have been multiple examinations that have confirmed that grade inflation is very real and still occurs today. Students seem to think that they do not need to put forth much effort in school to do well, and grade inflation encourages this thought.
One of the issues, which Boyer points out , is that teachers and students have different expectations from college education. She says that the teachers are mainly concerned about students’ comprehension of the material, their attendance and attention while students’ hopes are to get good grades and to be well prepared for exams. It seems that the system of grading pushes students to not care too much about what is being taught from an understanding perspective, but only promotes more concern about grades instead. Some students don't really pay attention unless the instructor mentions an exam or something that will be graded. Furthermore, be...
Grade inflation is a problem because it gives students a false sense of their ability to perform. For a student's future, grade inflation means not having to put in the same amount of effort to achieve the grade they would want from high school and college. Grade inflation can be seen as a negative thing; it increased during the Vietnam War, when students became consumers in colleges, creates an easy path for advanced students, and can negatively affect the younger generation. A possible solution would be to slowly decrease the grade inflation, maybe so minimalist that it isn't clearly noticed.
Mansfield, Harvey C. 2001. “Grade Inflation: It’s Time to Face the Facts.” The Chronicle of Higher Education 47(30):
Cheating is unacceptable no matter what type of situation it is. After reading about the Atlanta Public School scandal, and finding out the consequences that were given to the teachers, I totally agree that the behavior for the teachers were not justifiable. If you break the law, then you’re going to be punished and there’s no other way around it. I do believe that the long jail sentence given to the convicted teachers were a bit insane, but the teachers know all consequences of every law they break before agreeing to teach. In my opinion, the punishments don’t fit the crime because we have criminals and drug dealers on the street free but teachers in jail because they changed answers on an elementary school test. The justice system doesn’t always make sense sometimes, but at the end of the day, we all know the consequences if we commit the crime.
Aside from this many people still argue that there is not a gap in education. Education is fair, america is fair. If a boy living Chicago, well below the poverty line, wants an education he can get it!
Grade inflation is a major problem that keeps reoccurring in Universities across the nation. Grade inflation is defined as the awarding of higher grades than students deserve to maintain a school’s academic reputation. A change needs to be implemented to this unfair and wrong act because too many colleges are getting away with this form of cheating. Universities must install grade quotas because grade inflation causes an un-balanced playing field for graduate school applications, hides laziness on the part of student’s academic work, and forces teachers to cheat student education in order to maintain good reviews.
One change institutions should make to the grading system is to eliminate all factors that have noting to do with learning outcomes from affecting the students’ grade. According to the article, “Assessment of Learning Outcomes: What’s the difference?” written by Carnegie Mellon University, grades are often based on more than learning outcomes. Instructors usually include factors unrelated to learning outcomes such as attendance to class, participation, improvement and in some cases, grades are boosted a bit due to how hard the student is working.” These factors are
Education is one of the most important aspects of our society. By educating Americas youth we are molding the minds who are going to run and find new solutions to the problems are country faces today and for the future. However education, in general, is facing some serious problems. One of the most important aspects in running anything, including a school, is finances. If a school does not have adequate funding, the students will not be able to learn and grow to achieve their goals. The problem schools across the country and in particular Ohio is facing is, what is the best way to fund public school? There are many aspects that go into the funding of school but the question is being raised, do we need to change the way we go about funding our
Education has played an important role in people’s lives and receiving the best education is a right to all humans, but now in days we can see that our education system is in deep distress. This is made evident by the low rate of graduates; that’s why our education system needs to be improved. Many people think that our government is responsible for our bad education system, However, teachers are the real issue even though many teachers are saying they 're doing their best, they’re not. How do we improve our education system? For a start, we need to provide better teaching programs for teachers to improve their skills and make them earn their tenure instead of just giving it to them.