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After faculty vote, grade deflation policy officially dead (Give as 'A's Many as You Want)
Daily Princetonian ^ | 10/06/2014 | ANNA WINDEMUTH

Posted on 10/06/2014 5:27:13 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen

Ten years after the University first adopted a grade deflation policy, faculty members voted on Monday to reverse the policy and allow each department to determine its own grading standards.

The Faculty Committee on Grading, which was established to monitor the policy, was also dissolved at the meeting.

The now-former grading policy recommended that no University department should give more than 35 percent A-grades overall

(Excerpt) Read more at dailyprincetonian.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events; US: New Jersey
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1 posted on 10/06/2014 5:27:13 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen
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To: Kid Shelleen

Should read “Give as many ‘A’s as You Want”. The committee also recommended assessment of student work should move away from “grades” and instead focus on “quality of feedback,”


2 posted on 10/06/2014 5:29:37 PM PDT by Kid Shelleen (Beat your plowshares into swords. Let the weak say I am strong)
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To: Kid Shelleen
High Tuition = High Grade$.

Simple really.

3 posted on 10/06/2014 5:34:25 PM PDT by Paladin2
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To: Kid Shelleen

I guess all the diversity enrollees couldn’t hack it.


4 posted on 10/06/2014 5:34:29 PM PDT by Trailerpark Badass (There should be a whole lot more going on than throwing bleach, said one woman.)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Bkmrk


5 posted on 10/06/2014 5:34:34 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear
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I’m in favor of this. The teachers should have grading freedom.

Their committee could have voted the other way, where only 5% of the class were allowed As. If 10% scored well enough to earn an A, then you’ve punished those high performing students through a politically motivated grading process.


6 posted on 10/06/2014 5:39:16 PM PDT by AlmaKing
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To: Kid Shelleen

My first college, the University of Chicago, jumped on the grade inflation bandwagon later than most other competitive schools. This did NOT help the students in most cases, as high GPAs were expected, even as a majority of O-chem freshmen were flunking their first quarter.


7 posted on 10/06/2014 5:39:44 PM PDT by Dr. Sivana ("If you're litigating against nuns, you've probably done something wrong."-Ted Cruz)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Come on, these kids were raised on participation trophies. How cruel to deny them their “A” for making it to class occasionally.


8 posted on 10/06/2014 5:51:36 PM PDT by NonValueAdded ("Kerry, as Obama's plenipotentiary, is a paradox - the physical presence of a geopolitical absence")
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To: Paladin2
When everybody is in the top ten hiring will become a nightmare trying to
determine who is really stupid by their resume.
9 posted on 10/06/2014 5:56:26 PM PDT by MaxMax (Pay Attention and you'll be pissed off too! FIRE BOEHNER, NOW!)
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To: Kid Shelleen

A+,A,A-,B+,B,B-,C+,C,C-,D+,D,D-,F,F1,F2,I
Everything below C- is failing.


10 posted on 10/06/2014 5:56:57 PM PDT by Slambat
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To: Kid Shelleen
I've had classes in all sorts of technical subjects, but the toughest grader I ever ran into was, of all topics, an art teacher doing a Drawing class. 35 students. NO A's, 3 B's, the rest C's through F's and he gave quite a few of the latter. I got one of the B's and was as proud of that as any A I ever got.

That was a long, long time ago. 1972. Guy's probably dead now and I wouldn't be surprised if it was murder... ;-)

11 posted on 10/06/2014 5:57:13 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Trailerpark Badass

Exactly; whereas before we had a “gentleman’s C”, now we have a “minority/woman A”...

If you saw the writing skills of college graduates I work with, you would realize the worthlessness of most degrees awarded. I earned mine as a white guy; it’s the real deal.


12 posted on 10/06/2014 5:59:01 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: MaxMax

A short essay question on an application tends to separate the wheat from the chaff. You would be amazed at how many functional illiterates have been awarded college degrees; I can honestly say I was more educated in grammar school.

The refusal to have a discussion on this issue proves we are indeed a nation of cowards; pretending preferred minorities are educated when they are woefully lacking is doing them no favors.


13 posted on 10/06/2014 6:01:41 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Kid Shelleen

Most grade inflation is the result of a lack of challenge and not pushing students to meet higher challenges. This has to begin at the start, in the 101 courses. For college students they should be expected and told that they are expected to far exceed the high school level many college courses are at.

This is the situation because honestly most faculty are lazy when it comes to creating challenging courses and putting in the time it takes to teach those courses.

My students are given requirements that must be met. Miss requirements and you lose points, sometimes all of the points. If you don’t know how to accomplish the task then can you do the research to formulate an answer or solution; can you think through the problem and synthesize a solution. My courses expect the student to hit the ground running and know that the pace won’t let up.

Too many students have come to expect that college-level is an extension of high school and unfortunately many faculty and deans are too afraid to challenge or to possibly “scare” away the students because it is challenging.


14 posted on 10/06/2014 6:07:29 PM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: Billthedrill
I've had classes in all sorts of technical subjects, but the toughest grader I ever ran into was, of all topics, an art teacher doing a Drawing class. 35 students. NO A's, 3 B's, the rest C's through F's and he gave quite a few of the latter. I got one of the B's and was as proud of that as any A I ever got.

Thank goodness pick a prof keeps these worthless profs only teaching one semester.
15 posted on 10/06/2014 6:07:59 PM PDT by RushingWater
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To: kearnyirish2
If you saw the writing skills of college graduates I work with, you would realize the worthlessness of most degrees awarded. I earned mine as a white guy; it’s the real deal.

Several years ago, I was working as an adjunct professor at a large state university in North Texas. I was teaching an advertising course.

The B school asked if I would be interested in taking on a business communications course. I asked what they would expect from the students after a semester in order to consider the course a success.

The department head told me that, if I could get half the students in the class to compose one coherent paragraph, it would be a raving success.

I.e., I know where you're coming from...

16 posted on 10/06/2014 6:08:54 PM PDT by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: Ignorance on parade.)
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To: Kid Shelleen

I earned an MBA in 1982.I went nights part-time while working full time. It wasn’t easy. A 3.2 was the minimum acceptable GPA. I seem to recall no grades given; all were earned and not without work. The trick I learned was to do all the reading three times. A three hour class required about 8-9 hours of prep. I don’t miss it at all.


17 posted on 10/06/2014 6:11:46 PM PDT by muir_redwoods ("He is a very shallow critic who cannot see an eternal rebel in the heart of a conservative." G.K .C)
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To: RJS1950
Concur, and, as well, there is a good deal of pressure placed on professors not to give anything but A's to students who intend to apply to Medical, Veterinarian, or other demanding postgraduate schools, whose selection process is heavily GPA-dependent. One might think they wouldn't care, but if an institution's reputation for toughness frightens these students away the faculty will hear about it - that's their salaries going down the drain as well as the rest of the university's funding. Vicious circle.

You'd think that the selection committees could normalize for the average GPA in onee institution compared to that of other institutions, but that turns out to be exceedingly difficult to do. This shouldn't be an issue, but it is.

18 posted on 10/06/2014 6:13:55 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: okie01

Wow.

Some of my co-workers couldn’t even do that; even worse, they have no idea that my children in their early teens are more educated than they are in their fifties.

Nobody has been honest with them since the day they were born, and it makes working with them difficult. They don’t understand why after six months on the job they aren’t offered management positions...


19 posted on 10/06/2014 6:15:34 PM PDT by kearnyirish2 (Affirmative action is economic warfare against white males (and therefore white families).)
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To: Billthedrill
The question is: Did you learn some useful/interesting stuff?

Get your money's worth?

20 posted on 10/06/2014 6:15:42 PM PDT by Paladin2
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