NSU professor loses job in dispute over grades

PilotOnline.com ^ | May 4, 2008 | Bill Sizemore

[brwnsuga]

NORFOLK

At the end of this semester, Steven Aird will lose his job as an associate professor of biology at Norfolk State University for giving out too many F's.

He is not going quietly.

Aird says his termination is part of a dumbing-down of academic standards at NSU - a move by administrators to intimidate faculty members into passing undeserving students and rewarding inferior work.

Other faculty members in NSU's School of Science and Technology say they, too, have experienced pressure to bend their standards to pass more students, and more than a dozen current and former students in the school back up Aird's claim.

Because it is a personnel issue, NSU administrators declined to comment directly about Aird's case. But Sharon Hoggard, a university spokeswoman, flatly rejected Aird's accusation that the school has dumbed down its standards.

"It goes against our very mission, which is to provide an affordable high-quality education for an ethnically and culturally diverse student population," Hoggard said in an e-mail response. She pointed out that NSU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, for which it must meet stringent standards.

Aird says he understands, and believes in, NSU's mission. But he insists that too many of the university's students are ill-prepared for college-level work. "I really care about my students," he said. "That's why I refuse to lower the bar. The objective should be competence, not grades."

For more than four years, Aird has carried on a running battle in which NSU administrators repeatedly pressed him to raise his pass rate and he steadfastly refused.

Twice, he was denied tenure and issued a one-year terminal contract, meaning he would have to leave at the end of the year. After the first denial, he filed a grievance. A faculty grievance committee found in his favor, ruling that the tenure decision was flawed by procedural violations and retaliatory actions by administrators.

He reapplied and was turned down again, despite a favorable recommendation by a departmental tenure review committee. Citing seven classes in which 83 to 95 percent of his students got a D or F, Sandra DeLoatch, dean of the School of Science and Technology, wrote that Aird's "core problem" was "the overwhelming failure of the vast majority of the students he teaches."

His bosses say it's the teacher's responsibility to make sure the lessons are getting through. Carol Simpson, provost at Old Dominion University, agreed that a professor's high failure rate would be an appropriate matter for some type of intervention.

"It would send a flag that something is amiss," she said. "What that something is - it could be all kinds of things, depending on the class and the students and the professor. But it does say that all is not well. You would expect a reasonable bell-shaped curve where the top part of the bell is maybe a middle C. You wouldn't expect to have huge numbers failing."

The problem could be the difficulty of the material, the students' level of preparation or the way the material is being presented, Simpson said.

"Not every professor is an expert in the classroom," she said, "although they may be terrific researchers or scholars."

Hoggard, the NSU spokeswoman, said the university uses a multifaceted assessment of teaching effectiveness based on faculty portfolios, student ratings, peer evaluations and comments from the department chair and dean.

This semester, his last, Aird has been removed from the classroom. He spends his time doing research and job-hunting. At 55, he faces the possible end of his academic career.

Aird grew up in the Maryland suburbs of Washington and earned a doctorate in zoology from Colorado State University. A published researcher, he specializes in the chemistry of poisonous snake venoms.

After four years as a university teacher and researcher in Brazil, he came to NSU in 2002 and was assigned to the chemistry department. His first semester, 22 of the 24 students in his biochemistry course got Ds, Fs or dropped the class. In a November 2003 memo, Associate Dean Larry Mattix warned him: "This low level of student success is unacceptable."

In 2004, Aird was reassigned to the biology department.

The issue surfaced again quickly. In a December 2004 memo, Camellia Okpodu, the biology department chair, expressed alarm about the grades in lab sections of the freshman-level biology course. Dean DeLoatch, in rejecting Aird's application for tenure in March 2007, reiterated the theme again.

Each time, Aird's response was unbending. "I believe that we serve our students and our country best when we help our students to discover and develop their abilities, and when we help them develop the intellectual tools and the strength of character to overcome the obstacles they will encounter in life," he wrote in reply to Okpodu. "That cannot be accomplished, as so many at NSU have tried, by pandering to them and to their parents with inflated grades and pass rates."

To support his allegations of grade inflation, Aird performed a statistical analysis of two common exams that were given to all students taking the freshman-level biology course in the fall of 2005. The median grade in all sections on both exams - taught by five different professors - was F.

His final grades were an accurate reflection of students' performance on those two exams, Aird wrote the dean.

Hoggard said attributing the discrepancy between exam results and final grades to grade inflation is too simplistic.

"Every student doesn't learn in the same way," she said. "It becomes the duty of the faculty member to find ways to ensure that his or her students are understanding the material."

Student testimonials to Aird cite his passion for biology, his enthusiasm in the classroom and his willingness to help students who are struggling.

Natalie James, a senior biology major, took Aird's zoology class in 2006. "He told us at the beginning of the semester, 'It's going to hurt, and I'm going to really push you.'

"I was up at 2 o'clock many mornings e-mailing him with questions. It was a challenge the whole time."

James said Aird had a pleasant attitude and she learned more than she could have imagined in one semester. At the end of the course, she said, "I came out with an A by the skin of my teeth."

In contrast, James said, she easily received an A in another class. "Yes, it looks nice when you get out with a 4.0 GPA, but then you go to medical school and you know nothing."

Tiana Stephenson, a junior journalism major, took Aird's freshman biology class in 2005 and found it difficult, despite Aird's out-of-class assistance.

"I got a D - the only one I've ever gotten," she said. "If I had it to do over again, I wouldn't have taken his course. I was still in a high-school mindset, and he's not a high-school teacher."

Some of Aird's colleagues agree that professors feel pressure to pass more students.

At the School of Science and Technology, said Joseph Hall, a chemistry professor and president of the Faculty Senate, "faculty are - I'll use a nice word - encouraged to try and pass 70 percent of their students." If the rate drops below 70 percent, he said, "faculty are called in and asked to explain what they're going to do about it."

Aird thinks the phenomenon is due in part to the evolution of a "consumer culture" in higher education. He argues that administrators are tempted to placate students and parents with good grades to keep the tuition dollars flowing.

The financial pressure is particularly acute at NSU. Alone among Virginia state schools, most of which are experiencing significant growth, NSU's enrollment has declined by more than one-third over the past 15 years.

Hall echoed Aird's view that many NSU students come poorly prepared for college work.

Because so many have deficient study habits and poor writing skills, he said, "if you adhere to a certain standard, you would flunk a significant number of them, and you have to do something to try to get them to catch up." For instance, Hall said, he gives optional bonus quizzes to help students pull up their grades.

Hall said he counseled Aird to be more flexible, to no avail.

"I think what Steve decided was that the university should put programs in place to build up the background of the students, or admit better students. And he stuck to those guns."

Cassandra Newby-Alexander, an NSU history professor and vice president of the Faculty Senate, chaired the faculty committee that upheld Aird's grievance. She said there's always room for improving one's teaching technique, but she felt Aird deserved a chance to be mentored. "He didn't get the fair shake he should have had an opportunity to get."

[Chode]

the first day of college english i was exposed to a basketball bozo who told the class (during the required stand up and introduce yourself)and i quote... "I lites bassetball, girls, i be lawyer."

a fight nearly broke out when i told him "you NEED lawyer before you ever be one... i had to take a test to get into this class, how the hell did you ever get in here???"

needless to say he never came back to class but... i did see his worthless azz couple days later in the commons with an english 100 textbook.

See dopey. See dopey run with a bassetball!!! 8^)

[LibFreeOrDie]

Links to the course materials:

http://sst.nsu.edu/coursematerials.php

Click on the name of a course to see course requirements.

At the top of each course page are links to Chapters, Syllabus, Objectives, Labs, Practice Area, Lecture Notes, Sample Tests.

For some courses, the links are to extensive material on the textbook’s Web site. Other courses link to the prof’s own materials.

I’m guessing that the students have poor reading comprehension, did not take challenging science courses in high school, and sailed through K-12.

[stylin19a]

In contrast, James said, she easily received an A in another class. "Yes, it looks nice when you get out with a 4.0 GPA, but then you go to medical school and you know nothing."

someone gets it.

[irv]

Every student doesn't learn in the same way

I was willing to consider the possibility that the guy is just too tough on them but the above statement from the university is telling. When they pull this one out, it is ALWAYS a dodge. A cheap and disingenuous way to say, "Shut up and trust us. We're experts."

[tired1]

Wait until they get into the work force...”

a government job awaits, rest assured.

[goodnesswins]

What’s really sad now is that I hesitate going to a “minority” doctor.....

[tired1]

Is it just me?””

who cares, and what’s your problem?

[pillut48]

As a former teacher, I also found the lack of correct grammar/grammatical skills appalling. :-( Unfortunately, ebonics passes for passing nowadays!!

[tired1]

relax, you’re in bad company. to quote our Pres: “Chilrn does lern”.

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Your suggestion that there be either a course with more stringent prerequisites or that the course be split into two or more courses has a lot of merit.

When I entered Temple Un. in Sept. 1962, I had just come out of a good high school biology class with an A. Upon signing up for basic Biology to meet my science requirements, we were told (about 300 of us) that “Look your left and look to your right, because most of them won’t be back next semester”. We weren’t.

I learned from one of my lab partners (who was about 6 years older than me and a pre-med student) that this Biology 101 was a Med School wash-out class. If they had told us that earlier, I wouldn’t have wasted the time and money that I did.

A non-pre-Med school biology course could have been devised for those of us who were just mere mortals.

As for math, which I only passed in high school because my math teacher was a saint who had mercy on me, Temple had a “Finite Math” course and the regular Trig/Calculus courses (which I had either flunked or barely passed in high school - advanced courses). I passed Finite Math with very good grades and my soul intact.

I still use the principles of “Finite Sets” for my work and was using them to explain a political principle tonight to a colleague who is a national columnist/media analyst. And it made sense, too.

However, my high school advanced courses allowed me to cruise thru history (same book), and other courses before I got to the challenging ones.

Kids today are basically illiterate, both verbally and in writing, cannot form concise statement of fact to explain something, nor can they enunciate principles in a clear and articulate manner.

Hey, dude, duh, you know, like, you have to understand what I mean, etc. just doesn’t cut it in the real world.

[Last Dakotan]

Dr. Sowell gets it.

I wonder what grade he would have gotten in the class.

[quantar]

Many years ago, when I took Organic Chem, my class had 15 students. The results: one A, one B, three C's, one D and 9 F's. This was common at the time (late 60s). (I earned the B).
I am now an Adjunct Math Prof (retired) and just finished the grades for my Intro to Alg for this Spring Semester. The results: one A, 13 B's, 13 C's, one D and 20 F's. Eighteen of the F's were really FA (failure to attend); the students just stopped coming to class for whatever reason.
BTW my student evals are among the highest in the dept.

[Revolting cat!]

Dude, I wish I were in school now. With my motivation, advanced techiniques of slacking off, and drinking habits, I'd earn a Ph.D in no time! "Doctor Revolting cat! will be your surgeon today."

[pillut48]

Hey, dude, duh, you know, like, you have to understand what I mean, etc. just doesn’t cut it in the real world.

Unless you are B. Hussein Ubama, LOL! :-)

[editor-surveyor]

"I really don’t want any of the D and F students to be MY DOCTOR"

And oh boy am I glad that I don't have a doctor!

[an amused spectator]

I just read your post about the opinions on ratemyprofessors.com. Is it just me or do these students need grammar lessons too?

Yogi Bear:

"Hey, hey! F*ck literacy, Boo-Boo!"

[PrincessB]

I am not going to look up Norfolk State (but probably should) however I can probably make an guess as to the adminstration’s motivation.

Norfolk State is probably not in the top 20 of the U.S. News & World Report rankings. One of the killers for lower tier schools is “retention.” That is code for the percentage of first-time, full-time freshman that graduate in six years. My guess is that NSU isn’t close to the 80% or so of top tier schools. You can’t retain students who flunk out.