Just showing up for class now earns an 'A'

[Puppycow]

The Most Common Grade at U.S. Colleges Is an ‘A’ (http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/07/college.html)

I miss college too. :p

[Jeff Corey]

Bovine feces. There is no evidence cited.

OP gets an F.

[Mudcat]

In't college a lot different from the school life before that?

[NobbyNobbs]

I'm not able to read the article (the site froze my computer) but I had a teacher who would begin his courses as follows:

"At this moment, you each have an A. It is yours to lose or keep as you choose. Let's get started."

[Jeff Corey]

In't college a lot different from the school life before that?

Yes, it's still in't.

[Bob Blaylock]

Bovine feces. There is no evidence cited.

OP gets an F.


You can't give him an F. He showed up, so you have to give him an A.

[Scott Sommers]

Here's the whole article from the NPR.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/07/15/138167102/study-the-most-common-grade-given-by-colleges-is-an-a

[Puppycow]

Here's the whole article from the NPR.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/07/15/138167102/study-the-most-common-grade-given-by-colleges-is-an-a
Here's what it says:
Most recently, about 43 percent of all letter grades given were A's, an increase of 28 percentage points since 1960 and 12 percentage points since 1988. The distribution of B's has stayed relatively constant; the growing share of A's instead comes at the expense of a shrinking share of C's, D's and F's. In fact, only about 10 percent of grades awarded are D's and F's.

This one has graphs (http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/14/the-history-of-college-grade-inflation/)

[ETA]

In the county where I live teachers are no longer allowed to grade homework because the school board says, "we don't know what kind of home life the child has." Apparently they think learning only starts when you reach class and ends as soon as you leave.

Also, you can't get a 0 on any assignment. Even if you don't do the assignment at all, the lowest grade you can get is a 55.

[JAStewart]

Yeah you get an A... Attendance!

[brodski]

In the county where I live teachers are no longer allowed to grade homework because the school board says, "we don't know what kind of home life the child has."

Given the fact that in many cases parents have been quiet happy to do their kids homework for them to help them get better grades (although probably a worse education) I don't see that as a problem. Whilist it is beneficial to do homework homework turned in is not a good indication of having learned the material.

[C_Felix]

In the county where I live teachers are no longer allowed to grade homework because the school board says, "we don't know what kind of home life the child has." Apparently they think learning only starts when you reach class and ends as soon as you leave.

Also, you can't get a 0 on any assignment. Even if you don't do the assignment at all, the lowest grade you can get is a 55.

I was a teacher in a district where you couldn't grade homework. You counted it as "done" or "not done".

I was fine with this: I had no idea who did it, and or who helped the child. I had a child tell me his dad told him what to write; his dad pretty much did the math in his head and told his son the answers.

HW should be practice that is gone over in class the next day.

[MattusMaximus]

In the county where I live teachers are no longer allowed to grade homework because the school board says, "we don't know what kind of home life the child has." Apparently they think learning only starts when you reach class and ends as soon as you leave.

Also, you can't get a 0 on any assignment. Even if you don't do the assignment at all, the lowest grade you can get is a 55.

That's the dumbest policy I've ever heard.

No wonder the Chinese are going to be kicking ass on the U.S. in the next generation or so. I wonder who we'll collectively whine to then about how "the U.S. can't fail"?

ETA: To the OP, apparently none of these students have ever taken my college course.

[Jeff Corey]

Nor mine, nor the colleagues I've discussed that "43%" with.

[Minoosh]

In the inner-city public school where I taught 50 percent of the kids flunked freshman algebra. The overall quality of instruction was good. The school had its problems, but grade inflation in math wasn't one of them.

[Puppycow]

Nor mine, nor the colleagues I've discussed that "43%" with.

Could it be that they just don't want to admit it to a colleague?

Here's the original study, although the full version is behind a paywall:

http://www.tcrecord.org/content.asp?contentid=16473

Private colleges and universities give, on average, significantly more A’s and B’s combined than public institutions with equal student selectivity. Southern schools grade more harshly than those in other regions, and science and engineering-focused schools grade more stringently than those emphasizing the liberal arts. At schools with modest selectivity, grading is as generous as it was in the mid-1980s at highly selective schools. These prestigious schools have, in turn, continued to ramp up their grades. It is likely that at many selective and highly selective schools, undergraduate GPAs are now so saturated at the high end that they have little use as a motivator of students and as an evaluation tool for graduate and professional schools and employers.

Do you teach at a private or public school?
Is it Southern or in another region?
Is it engineering-focused or liberal-arts focused?
Is it modestly or highly selective?

[Puppycow]

It all sort of makes sense when you consider that private schools and highly selective schools tend to receive a lot of largesse from their alumni. And I'll bet that an alumni who got A's in school might feel more warm and fuzzy about his alma mater than one who got C's, all else being equal. Public schools OTOH don't depend on alumni, and math and engineering is less subjective than English Literature or Gender Studies or stuff like that.

[Quinn]

After learning that there are high schools that give a "certificate of attendance" to seniors who didn't pass enough classes to graduate, but who at least showed up some of the time (because depriving those poor kids of a cap, gown, and a fancy piece of paper when the rest of the kids got one would just be too cruel), I can't say I'm surprised.

[ttch]

Teachers can only teach what they themselves have learned. E.g., this example (http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/02/weekinreview/ideas-trends-math-is-only-new-when-the-teacher-doesn-t-get-it.html?pagewanted=3) from NYT science writer Gina Kolata:

Some of the failures of the old new math can be traced to inadequate teacher training. My husband's experience one summer at a training program for high school teachers sponsored by the National Science Foundation made me ask how many of these programs were just smoke and mirrors. He was supposed to be teaching a subject called complex variables, but he quickly learned that these teachers knew so little elementary high school algebra - a topic they were supposed to be teaching - that they could not even grasp what is known as complex arithmetic, which far precedes complex variables.

The teachers learned none of the course material, so my husband failed them all. A program administrator later changed all their grades to B's.


What was learned in this case? Clearly it wasn't math.

[Jeff Corey]

Could it be that they just don't want to admit it to a colleague?

Here's the original study, although the full version is behind a paywall:

http://www.tcrecord.org/content.asp?contentid=16473...

Here's more detail from the first author. http://fortyquestions.blogspot.com/2011_07_01_archive.html
"METHODOLOGY

We assembled our data on four-year school grades (grades given in terms of percent A–F for a given semester or academic year) from a variety of sources: books, research articles, random World Wide Web searching of college and university registrar and institutional research office Web sites, personal contacts with school administrators and leaders, and cold solicitations for data from 100 registrar and institutional research offices, selected randomly (20 of the institutions solicited agreed to provide contemporary data as long as the school’s grading practices would not be individually identified in our work)."
Sounds a bit dicey to me. I don't personally know of any www site providing such data, personal contacts with school administrators sounds anecdotal, as do solicitations from registrar and institutional research offices. And "books"? What "books"? This sounds incredibly sloppy, even for education research.
As for your question, private U, NY, moderately selective and primarily tuition supported.

[Rasmus]

random World Wide Web searching of college and university registrar and institutional research office Web sites

Wouldn't institutions be more likely to voluntarily publish their grades if they were giving good grades?

[Cayvmann]

Wonder how much online colleges, like Univ. of Phoenix, effect these stats?

I went to a public, southern, engineering college. They kicked my butt, for my low B...

[RenaissanceBiker]

I went to a public, southern, engineering college. They kicked my butt, for my low B...

I'm enrolled in a Ph.D. engineering program at a public southern university (while working full-time as an engineering consultant). I have to work my ass off to get Bs.

[JudeBrando]

And is this a liberal or conservative development?

[TragicMonkey]

And is this a liberal or conservative development?

Is everything that happens necessarily one or the other?

[Jeff Corey]

You bet it do, pilgrim! Those liberal commies perfessers believe in "From each that has it and to each that don't" so that means those liberal commie perfessors gives away grades like welfare.Luckily, I'm from the Old School, not the New School. At Whossamotta U. we award grades strickly on the basis of test results, quality of papers submitted class participation and various emollients, not necessarily in that order.
The average grade at Wossamotta is D-. To graduate, students must achieve at least a bourgeois C. To facilitate this, students are allowed to retake courses as many times as they can afford to reach that laudable goal.
http://www.introengineering.org/twiki/pub/Conference09/TeamNum0008/Wossamotta-Large.jpg

[psionl0]

Just wait until motoring schools adopt the same philosophy.