I�ve received several interesting comments on my entry about my adventures in grading from a few of days ago.

drgeek had this to say:

Grade inflation puzzles me. I tend to believe that institution that believes that grades C through F are somehow no longer appropriate is obviously not developing its curriculum to meet the qualifications of its student body. Conversely, I spent a number of years at an undergraduate institution where professors routinely gave grades on a bell curve. That could be good when the mid-term exam average was 45 and you got 47. It was bad when the professor limited A grades only to the highest 10% of the class. If I had to suffer like that, so should these young whippersnappers! But seriously, there has to be a happy medium out there somewhere... because let's face it, an A grade should not be a Herculean task but it also shouldn't be an entitlement.

I agree on all counts.

First, grade inflation is a big problem all over. And as you suggest, it seems to be related to the amazing sense of entitlement that students exhibit in a thousand small ways on a daily basis. Granted, undergraduate students at my institution are paying nearly $43,000 a year for the privilege of attending this school, so it is understandable that they have high expectations for what they get out of the experience. But just when did $43,000 buy you an A instead of an education? Which is more valuable in the long run?

Second, grading is, as I think I�ve said before, a somewhat mysterious process. You need to have a system that is clear enough for you to be consistent and for your students to understand. But at the same time, it needs to be flexible enough for you to take individual students and their situations into account. In an intro level course, this is particularly important, as those tend to be the courses with the widest variety of subject knowledge.

And on top of it all, the material to be graded is often not easily quantifiable. I�ve never understood the point of the bell curve, as it seems to normalize something that may not, in fact, be normal. Theoretically you could have an entire class of people doing A work. That said, there should be some kind of mechanism to repair things if you notice that everyone is doing poorly. Because chances are if everyone flunks a quiz, you either wrote it badly or didn�t teach them the material well. Students should not be penalized for the teacher�s errors with a dogmatic adherence to percentages. I always lay out an elaborate system of percentages for the weight of each assignment of the term in the syllabus. It looks highly specific, and it does help me evaluate. But really, when it comes to putting a grade on an essay, there are so many things to consider. How do you rank quality of thought or ideas? To what extent do I take writing quality into account? I had one student, whom I wrote about here previously, who would have failed if I had rated her writing the same way I�d done everyone else�s, but she was one of only two students who came up with truly original thinking (in a good way) on her paper. And given her work across the quarter and the fact that she was a freshman, it was clear to me that penalizing her writing was penalizing her high school education, which was not really the point. I opted for correcting her work without penalizing her grade to the same extent I would have if I�d thought she was just being sloppy. But these decisions are somewhat arbitrary. It is possible that she just had me snowed. But I don�t think so.

borogoves had the most bald-faced story of grade-grubbing I�ve heard yet, although it is by no means unique:

one summer, a kid missed the midterm, just didn't show up. the following week when i tracked him down, he gave me some bullshit excuse for missing it (um, but hello? if the excuse was real, then couldn't you have AT LEAST emailed me before the test saying you had an emergency and wouldn't be there? or get your roommate to do it? or call me afterwards, when you could get a second, and fill me in? not so much just ignoring it til i track YOU down.) after much pleading on his part, i gave him the option to have his entire grade be based on the final exam, and just ignore the midterm. very generous of me, really, and against my better judgement. i was evilly happy to see, after the final was graded, that he had failed it miserably, so would be getting that F anyway. another year, another class, one student (these are priviledged, entitled ivy league students, keep in mind) had the AUDACITY to find me after getting a deserved B+ or something for her final grade and try to argue for an A because (and this really is what she said) "my daddy pays $39,000 a year for me to go here, so i deserve an A." i was floored. "my daddy...?" really? that's your argument? ARE YOU KIDDING? i had to try my best not to outright laugh in her face.

And once again, that sense of entitlement rears its ugly head. Let�s see, Ms. My-daddy-pays-$39,000, how such an excuse goes over when you get a poor performance review at your first job. And let�s think about the logic of this for a moment. If the same argument were applied at, say, the DMV, then anyone who could buy a car could get a license regardless of whether or not they knew how to drive and even if they had demonstrated on the exam that in fact they neither knew how to drive nor were familiar with the rules of the road. God help us if this is the case.

Fortunately for me, I have not yet received any complaints about grades. I�d like to take the credit for that, as I�ve been as up front about the hows and whys of my grading as I can be. But mostly I think it�s that most of them did quite well in the course. They were a good class.

The class I started teaching today, however, has no grades. Yes, I officially became a fitness instructor (Okay, M., you can stop laughing now) this morning and taught my very first water aerobics class. I don�t think I totally sucked, and I actually feel like I got a workout, so I�m hoping I�ll be able to do a respectable job. As long as no one expects me to be all bouncy and perky. I don�t think this one�s going on my c.v., though. What would I call the position? Visiting lecturer in Recreational Aquatics?

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