NSU professor loses job in dispute over grades

I hesitated posting it because, all the under-cover-Kluckers seem to come out of the woodwork if they smell the chum of RACE in the water. And unfortunately, my predictions were correct.

I find it interesting that you paint your protests against broad-brush statements regarding minorities and affirmative action with such a nuclear broad brush.

Affirmative action is a taint on American society with the manner in which it has been implemented, because it both casts doubt on true individual achievement as well as guaranteeing failure for many students who otherwise would be successful (affirmative action students at MIT routinely fail, whereas they would likely succeed handsomely at lesser technical schools like the one I attended - it's a question of preparation, not of race). Thomas Sowell (I believe) wrote a highly coherent column on this subject in the not-too-distant past.

Recognizing the effects of a socialistic promotion policy based on anything but achievement - including the negative shadows cast on those individuals who achieve success by their own exertions - isn't racist. (I would say that refusing to recognize that there are such individual achievers touched by those shadows would probably be racist - "probably" because I cannot know the mind of another man.)

On the other hand, "under-cover-Kluckers" apparently cannot be reasoned with, but instead should be dismissed with incendiary posts.

To be completely fair with your post, however, I should also note that your words "I did not feel that this article was an issue of race, but an example of how we cripple our children by not requiring or expecting excellence from them." are right on the money, and I could not agree more.

Your argument appears to be that the students being unable to master the material is the fault of the professor. Across 5 different professors, the grades on an identical tests had a median F. The other professors curved the grades up, meaning that failing grades became passing.

Why is the one prof who chooses to grade in a known and predictable manner (as opposed to on a curve) the one who is wrong?

“see Post 47....your comments?”

....my post was based on a 1997 study by the Association of American Medical Colleges[AAMC]is which it frankly admitted it’s bias for affirmative action....the report “Minority Students in Medical Education” begins by defining a new category of future doctors known as “Under Represented Minority”[URM] students....the implication being that the medical profession should have the same the same proportion of racial/ethnic/gender groups as the country in general regardless of qualifications.....the report profiles URMs and found lower grades in college and lower MCAT scores by a factor of 30%...hopefully this disparity has been overcome in the last 10 years.

I am about ready to fail three-quarters of my intro to computer students. Why? Well, I start ever semester laying out exactly what they have to do in the class to get a good grade & most of them just don’t do what I’ve asked. Started w/ 21 students, had 3 withdraw. Out of the rest, I currently have 3 coming to class regularly with about 4 others popping in once every other week or so.

I have never had this many kids pay for the class, then just blow it off. One girl e-mailed me that she could’t come to class because gas cost too much. Then she tells me that she needs the class to transfer to one of the state universities, next semester. I can’t understand how she a) justifies paying the tuition, but then basically throwing that money away because of the cost of gas. And b) how will she get to class at the university cause she’ll have to pay for gas to get there too.

I should mention that this is a community college with open enrollment, so as long as the kid has a high school diploma, he/she can attend. But still, this isn’t even trying and failing, this is just not even showing up to class!!

Tomorrow is D-Day, the last day of classes before finals. It’s the last day I will accept an missing assignments. This should be good!!

>> Your argument appears to be that the students being unable to master the material is the fault of the professor. <<

That’s a load of crap. I specifically compared his students to MIT by comparing little-leaguers to major-league sluggers.

>> Across 5 different professors, the grades on an identical tests had a median F. <<

Are you asserting that you know of some outside, objective criteria that *all* of the classes failed to meet?

(Or do you presume that anything less than 65% of all scores correct should be an ‘F’? If so, probably every student at NSU ‘flunked’ their SAT scores, which translate 65% correct to an 1180 out of 1600 ... which before the redesign was a good enough score to get Harvard, Stanford, etc. sending you scads of recruitment brochures!)

If these kids would flunk an objective measure, I’d certainly retract my comments, but I’d have to see good sources.

Fair enough, Dangus. Regarding the 5 different professors, I was simply referring to information from the article. Not being involved directly in the situation, I cannot determine the correctness of the assessment.

SAT scoring, however, is not absolute as defined prior to the test being taken. It is a comparative score only (with comparisons valid only for each re-normed version of the test that is administered).

If 65% is the established criteria for pass/fail on the test described in the article, then it is eminently fair to hold students to that standard (provided that the test is properly normed for this grade scale).

I apologize if I mischaracterized your argument, although I did simply state the way it appeared to me. Thanks for the clarification.

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