Comments on: Faculty consider grading overhaul

By: Jeep Cherokee

Jeep Cherokee — Tue, 16 Sep 2014 15:48:00 +0000

I can see the content deflation in action. I have standardized college exams in my office. If you compare them year to year, the raw mean stays about the same. If you look at the questions, though, you notice they progressively require less knowledge, less work, and less thought. I let students see an exam from 1984 to study. It freaks them out and makes them study like mad. After they struggle to score a 50% percentile on the 1984 exam with unlimited time, a textbook, and the internet, they proceeded to score at the 65th %ile on a 2008 exam in 2 hours with just a pencil and a non-programmable calculator last year.

By: Mark Feldman

Mark Feldman — Sat, 22 Feb 2014 19:00:00 +0000

From 1966 to 2006 total SAT scores at the Ivy League schools increased an average of about 50 points. (See [link removed].) In that same time, the SAT has been readjusted so that a verbal score of 680 in 1966 would be equivalent to 740 in 2006, and a math score of 780 would now be an 800. (See [link removed].) I believe those changes account for all of the increase in SAT scores of freshmen at top schools.

The exact numbers don’t matter. What matters is that, according to studies reported in the book, “Academically Adrift”, students are studying less, and actually learning less. As someone who taught math for many years at Washington University in St. Louis, I am convinced that when less is required for a certification of “excellent” work, less will be achieved.

If grade inflation, and its effect on education, is a problem at the Ivy League schools, imagine what the problem is like at the Ivy “wannabes”. They are desperate for happy consumers (once quaintly called “students”); so much so that they have even replaced grade inflation with “content deflation”. Content deflation is much easier on everyone. This is a real problem in this country.

Clark Kerr wrote in 1980 that the “..shift from academic merit to student consumerism is one of the…greatest reversals of direction in all the history of…higher education…”

Robert Hutchins wrote that “…when an institution determines to do something in order to get money it must lose its soul…”

David Rieman wrote in 1980 that “…the student estate often does not grasp its own interests, and those who speak in its name are not always its friends…”

If anyone wants to see just how bad this loss of integrity has become, read “A Tale Out of School – A Case Study in Higher Education” on my blog [link removed]

By: andrewyliao

andrewyliao — Sat, 23 Feb 2013 23:43:00 +0000

In reply to Tiger '15. yep

By: 72bullldog

72bullldog — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 14:40:00 +0000

First, the article is incorrect in saying that 40 years ago the number of As was 10%. The Preliminary Report says that in 1963 (which is 50 -not 40-years ago), the number of A equivalent grades was 10%. By 1974, the number of A equivalent grades was 40%. It has since risen to the current percentage. So the real grade inflation occurred in the latter part of the 1960s and early part of the 1970s. What had happened? Two things at least: (a) the transformation of student culture in the late ’60s and (b) the transformation of the Yale student body to a much more meritocratic population drawn from a wider base (fewer legacies, public schools etc) judging by SAT scores and GPAs.
This is not to say that grade inflation is not something to be considered. But the dilemma for students is that many post graduate schools (law, business, medical) are driven by the US New ranking system which is so dependent on the GPAs (as well as standardized test results) of the incoming students. So Yale needs to be cautious about any impacts any change may have on the post graduate prospects of its students.

By: RobertMosesSupposesErroneously

RobertMosesSupposesErroneously — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 19:39:00 +0000

In reply to sy.

FWIW, there’s also the Flynn Effect, which observes that the national average IQ has risen about 7 points every generation – every few decades, they actually need to re-write the test to make it harder and re-calibrate “100” as average.

Someone scoring 100 in 1940 would test as well “below average” today, and a genius back then would score only slightly above average.

To date, there’s been no conclusive explanation for this phenomenon.

By: Tiger '15

Tiger '15 — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 06:06:00 +0000

Is this a joke? At Princeton, 25% of the grades are in the A-range in intro classes and I’ve only taken one that “generously” granted A-range grade to 40% of the students (and the abundance of math majors in that class sort of threw that curve off anyways). I have a 3.4 here and I’ve finished above the median in 12 of my 13 classes here and in the top 70% in all of them. Am I to believe that I would have a GPA in the 3.8-3.9 range were I to have chosen to attend Yale instead?

By: blindlyagreeswithabovecomment

blindlyagreeswithabovecomment — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 04:43:00 +0000

In reply to kissmyassn!gger. I agree. The joke is no longer funny.

By: blindlyagreeswithabovecomment

blindlyagreeswithabovecomment — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 04:43:00 +0000

In reply to pollypocket13579. This makes perfect sense. Yale only confers more A's because Yalies are on average more intelligent.

By: ldffly

ldffly — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 01:50:00 +0000

In reply to sy. 35 years ago, the median SAT was 1410, if I'm not mistaken. Of course, today's SAT is very different from year's ago.

By: sy

sy — Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:13:00 +0000

In reply to henrycopeland. Though not a Yale student, . . . and except for today's inane op-ed about a Coke ban in dining halls, I will defend their intellectual ability. A few years ago, 1 in 12 students had a perfect 1600 SAT; 1 in 5 had 800 math or verbal. Unless that is attributed to prep courses, their competitiveness is higher across each entire class. The top half of Yale classes was always very competitive, and the bottom half very worthy. But with a median SAT now over 1400, there probably should be some grade inflation. (Your point on mass applications is correct, but the competition still appears higher.)