Grade Inflation Effect
A Study on Grade Inflation:
The Inflation of Grades in American Educational Institutions
An epidemic is what one might call the trend of the slowly increasing average in the grades of colleges all across America. It is a particularly subtle ascension, albeit a troublesome one. Grade inflation is a major issue in the American educational institutions it affects- data reveals the various causes that lead to the inflation of grades- caused both by students and their instructors, which in turn has many adverse effects.
A general consensus circulates the staff of American schools- that this rise in awarded grades was most noticed in the mid-nineteen sixties, around the time of the Vietnam War. Stuart Rojstaczer, a former Duke professor, preformed …show more content…
As mentioned earlier, this grade trend is a ripple effect, with each wave bringing forth assets and liabilities.
The Consequences of Grade Inflation
Most good things in life come with a catch. As mentioned previously, inflating the grades of students means that more individuals receive higher grades than they would typically receive. This section will examine the process of rewarding students for simply completing their work, incorrect teacher evaluations, and the reasoning behind professors that inflate grades.
Rewarding Word Done vs. Work Well Done
In Student Sorting and Implications for Grade Inflation by Michael C. Herron- a professor of government at Dartmouth College- and Zachary D. Markovich- a research associate at Harvard University- discuss in depth the performance of students in a set model. In this model, Herron and Markovich (2016) examine a set of students who have the ability to choose for themselves between two departments- “ability-revealing” and “ …show more content…
To keep things consistent, we will be examining a professor’s rating from Dartmouth. Ratemyprofessors.com is a site where students are able to rate their teachers on a scale of zero to five and according to the site, Kohn (Meir Kohn at Dartmouth College) has an average rating of 2.8. Examining the student reviews- fourteen of them- reveals a consistent trend. Ratings above 4.0 applaud Kohn’s teaching ability and appreciate the difficulty of his course. In comparison, ratings that fell below 4.0 were mostly ad hominem attacks against the professor personally rather than the course he is instructing. Judging from the reviews alone, it appears that Meir Kohn’s course is an ability-revealing course as opposed to a ability-concealing course. His course separates high-ability students willing to put in the effort from low-ability students. The low-ability students retaliated by giving their professor a low rating without giving any valid reasoning behind
The Inflation of Grades in American Educational Institutions
An epidemic is what one might call the trend of the slowly increasing average in the grades of colleges all across America. It is a particularly subtle ascension, albeit a troublesome one. Grade inflation is a major issue in the American educational institutions it affects- data reveals the various causes that lead to the inflation of grades- caused both by students and their instructors, which in turn has many adverse effects.
A general consensus circulates the staff of American schools- that this rise in awarded grades was most noticed in the mid-nineteen sixties, around the time of the Vietnam War. Stuart Rojstaczer, a former Duke professor, preformed …show more content…
As mentioned earlier, this grade trend is a ripple effect, with each wave bringing forth assets and liabilities.
The Consequences of Grade Inflation
Most good things in life come with a catch. As mentioned previously, inflating the grades of students means that more individuals receive higher grades than they would typically receive. This section will examine the process of rewarding students for simply completing their work, incorrect teacher evaluations, and the reasoning behind professors that inflate grades.
Rewarding Word Done vs. Work Well Done
In Student Sorting and Implications for Grade Inflation by Michael C. Herron- a professor of government at Dartmouth College- and Zachary D. Markovich- a research associate at Harvard University- discuss in depth the performance of students in a set model. In this model, Herron and Markovich (2016) examine a set of students who have the ability to choose for themselves between two departments- “ability-revealing” and “ …show more content…
To keep things consistent, we will be examining a professor’s rating from Dartmouth. Ratemyprofessors.com is a site where students are able to rate their teachers on a scale of zero to five and according to the site, Kohn (Meir Kohn at Dartmouth College) has an average rating of 2.8. Examining the student reviews- fourteen of them- reveals a consistent trend. Ratings above 4.0 applaud Kohn’s teaching ability and appreciate the difficulty of his course. In comparison, ratings that fell below 4.0 were mostly ad hominem attacks against the professor personally rather than the course he is instructing. Judging from the reviews alone, it appears that Meir Kohn’s course is an ability-revealing course as opposed to a ability-concealing course. His course separates high-ability students willing to put in the effort from low-ability students. The low-ability students retaliated by giving their professor a low rating without giving any valid reasoning behind