Posted on 04/16/2010 7:33:18 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Grade inflation appears to have become policy at Louisiana State University, where Professor Dominique G. Homberger was removed from teaching an introductory biology course for giving tough grades. USA Today reports that the professor
... gives brief quizzes at the beginning of every class, to assure attendance and to make sure students are doing the reading. On her tests, she doesn't use a curve, as she believes that students must achieve mastery of the subject matter, not just achieve more mastery than the worst students in the course. For multiple choice questions, she gives 10 possible answers, not the expected 4, as she doesn't want students to get very far with guessing.
"The class in question is an entry-level biology class for non-science majors, and, at mid-term, more than 90% of the students in Dr. Homberger's class were failing or had dropped the class. The extreme nature of the grading raised a concern, and we felt it was important to take some action to ensure that our students receive a rigorous, but fair, education. Professor Homberger is not being penalized in any way; her salary has not been decreased nor has any aspect of her appointment been changed."
"I believe in these students. They are capable," she said. And given that LSU boasts of being the state flagship, she said, she should hold students to high standards. Many of these students are in their first year, and are taking their first college-level science course, so there is an adjustment for them to make, Homberger said. But that doesn't mean professors should lower standards.
Homberger said she was told that some students had complained about her grades on the first test. "We are listening to the students who make excuses, and this is unfair to the other students," she said. "I think it's unfair to the students" to send a message that the way to deal with a difficult learning situation is "to complain" rather than to study harder.
I agree, but doubt you get much agreement here from people who think they are experts in education.
I agree. Some people ARE hard to teach.
In that case, perhaps the course should had made calculus an explicit prerequisite, rather than having students find out too late that they didn't have the background to pass.
Calculus is needed for intermediate economics courses as well, but it is not an official pre-requisite. Still, anyone with a college degree should know how to differentiate simple derivatives.
We called the Business Calculus course, "Baby Calc" when I was in College.
And this is what happens when you pay mathematicians so little. In my department, only 3 out of the youngest 15 mathematics professors are native English speakers.
Mathematicians are generally treated quite badly by administrations who want all of those fancy engineering and NIH grants. (I was thinking of writing a proposal to fail to cure cancer. Because I can fail to cure cancer faster and cheaper than it's currently being done.) And if you are smart enough to be able to tie your own shoes, you get a grant in engineering and biology. In biology, that is an overqualification, in fact. Even travel grants are nearly impossible to come by in mathematics.
Who goes into it? Well people whose education (K-12+college) is fully subsidized and excellent, doesn't have a lot of wussmanities and PC requirements and focuses bright students on mathematics and the basics.
They come to the US for graduate school to escape the poor country they were born in and stay through the professoriate.
And that is why, Virginia, your college math teachers suck.
Intro biology for non-science majors? How hard can it be?
I bet they didn’t even have to cut up a frog.
I repeated integral calculus even though I had passed it the first time, because I didn't feel I had a good enough grasp of it to continue on in math. The first night of my second go-round, the teacher said that integral calculus was where we'd find out if we belonged in the sciences. I passed again with a B, but realized he was right - I just don't have the mindset.
I.E., to prevent knowledge and power
from falling into unworthy hands.
Or failing that, into as many hands as possible.
Not at all. Until mid- to late 1990s, students were told in the introductory lecture that about 5% of them would fail the course. That simple. This included even Harvard Business (graduate) School.
The problems occurred when those 5% were removed. You simply cannot get a C in a business school. There were cases where professors (still teaching as far as I know) gave A to the entire class.
It's not the curve but the absence thereof which is a problem.
[The curve does protect the students from the subjectivity of a particular professor.]
This isn't a bad sign, Nina. Back in ye olden days, even an English Major was required to know something of science and math; knowledge imparted in "Armchair Intro Tech" courses.
Perhaps that worthy and quaint tradition is still alive at LSU?
Exactly. Grading on the curve actually corrects for the teacher's failings. IOW, if even the best students in your class only score 85%, the added 15% is to correct for the teacher's poorly worded test question, failure to properly teach the subject, etc.
As has been said here before, both teacher and student bear responsibility. When 90% of the class is failing, the teacher is failing to teach.
And I don't think you should be able to graduate high school without fluency in least one foreign language, and at least two years of Latin or Greek on top of that.
Power? I thought you had to flunk math and go to law school for that.
Law Schools steer those who flunked math into representing men in divorce cases.
I never curve grades. What I do is return tests and allow them to correct them with an open book, explaining why the correct answer is correct. I give them “back” half of the the points they lost per question. I only do this on the first test. I’ve found it shows my students how to study and that if they actually read the book, they CAN do well on a test. The grades on their second tests tends to shoot way up. I consider teaching them how to take tests as part of their education.
That’s actually not a curve.
A curve matches the grades to the Gaussian distribution (i.e., the Bell curve). The median grade is a C.
A curve matches the grades to the Gaussian distribution (i.e., the Bell curve). The median grade is a C.I stand corrected. However, no one grades on a true Bell Curve, as far as I know.
That is true. “Curve” often means upward adjustment by the deficit in the highest grade, it’s just not what the word is supposed to mean. It’d be interesting to grade things that way across the board.
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