dennis roberts wrote:
>
> At 02:56 PM 2/9/2003, Herman Rubin wrote:
>
> >If we had really good education, an "A" would usually be
> >an indication that the student was placed in too low or
> >too slow a course.
>
> so, my interpretation of the above is that the concept of A ... is flawed,
> right? it's not fair to assume that some students work very hard ...
> achieve at a high level in a course ... and thus deserve an A for their
> accomplishments?
>
> if that is the reasoning, then we might apply that to Fs ... saying that IF
> a student is given an F, it is because we let a student enter a course for
> which he/she is totally unprepared ...
And, taken to its logical extreme, it means that we ought to do all our
evaluation before the course, and then give every student whom we allow
in a "pass" grade.
Grading is largely for the benefit of future instructors and employers.
The student usually knows how much of the material they have understood
without benefit of a final exam.
Let's face it, certification is one of the services that students want,
expect, and pay for. A students who wants to audit a course here at
Saint Mary's can do so; and the instructor will usually let him/her
write the exam unofficially, just for feedback. I believe that in about
14 years of teaching I've had one student choose this option, out of
well over a thousand.
That said, students do not necessarily want *accurate* certification.
If I offer a class automatic A's in the course if they sign on a sheet I
pass out, I'm afraid that just about everybody will sign (unless they
think it's a trick). They do want certification that *looks* accurate;
if I make the same offer but tell them that their permanent transcript
and their degree certificate will contain a full description of this
grading process in large letters, interest will drop off remarkably.
In other words, grade inflation is OK provided the chickens come home
to roost in later cohorts. This is of course dishonest, essentially
stealing credit from students yet to come; which is why it's our
business to give the student body what it, over time, needs. not what
its individual members want right now.
-Robert Dawson
.
.
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