Why Colleges Shower Their Students With A's Summary
Jorge Cortez
Orsini Gonzalez
English_101_ODC
29 September, 2014
Summary
Why Colleges shower their students with A’s
In “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s” by Brent Staples, some of the most interesting things that I noticed in the essay was the topic of how colleges are issuing more and more A’s due to an increasing consumer demand and a stiff competition from competitors. Staples states, “Some departments shower students with A’s to fill poorly attended courses that might otherwise be canceled.” It was very interesting to see how many professors feel that they must provide their students with more A’s and B’s to satisfy not just their consumer-conscious administrators, but they must also do so to avoid getting their classes canceled
due to a lack of students wanting to attend their courses. It’s kind of sad to see how even professors are being pushed to do things such as boost their students grades even though a great majority may not have even earned it. Why inflate their students grades? So that they could maintain their teaching without being frowned upon for not attracting students into their courses. Another interesting passage was when Brent discussed the idea of how professors are inflating their students grades to avoid negative evaluations by students. When did professors fear students? According to Brent, students opinions are “now figures in tenure and promotion decisions”, which is proving to be a very troublesome fact for professors who are in fear that they may lose their jobs if their students feel that they are not being easy enough on them and providing them with higher grades that they may not have earned.
Orsini Gonzalez
English_101_ODC
29 September, 2014
Summary
Why Colleges shower their students with A’s
In “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s” by Brent Staples, some of the most interesting things that I noticed in the essay was the topic of how colleges are issuing more and more A’s due to an increasing consumer demand and a stiff competition from competitors. Staples states, “Some departments shower students with A’s to fill poorly attended courses that might otherwise be canceled.” It was very interesting to see how many professors feel that they must provide their students with more A’s and B’s to satisfy not just their consumer-conscious administrators, but they must also do so to avoid getting their classes canceled
due to a lack of students wanting to attend their courses. It’s kind of sad to see how even professors are being pushed to do things such as boost their students grades even though a great majority may not have even earned it. Why inflate their students grades? So that they could maintain their teaching without being frowned upon for not attracting students into their courses. Another interesting passage was when Brent discussed the idea of how professors are inflating their students grades to avoid negative evaluations by students. When did professors fear students? According to Brent, students opinions are “now figures in tenure and promotion decisions”, which is proving to be a very troublesome fact for professors who are in fear that they may lose their jobs if their students feel that they are not being easy enough on them and providing them with higher grades that they may not have earned.