Just raked up enough resources to go through student evals. How's this for logic?
Coffee Cup (CC), a rather diligent and thoughtful student (well usually anyway unless I was sniffing Tide all last semester), complained about this professor being "unfair and inconsistent in [his/her] grading".
Background: I'm a foreigner, not used to or prone to but actually severely allergic to grade inflation (and duly unpopular because of that). I do not believe anything but a mathematical or similar problem can be 100% correct. To get an A, in other words, is almost as possible as getting Tide in jail for your laundry.
The situation: CC received 73% on an assignment, even though he/she/it left out a question. The assignment asked for indepth analysis of certain issues, but instructed students to keep it concise. CC handed in 7 typed pages of high-quality work.
The issue: Another student or students, who handed in several more pages, received lower grades.
The conclusion: quantity = higher grades
Please help me out: Am I (still) just mathematically deprived?
Groetnis,
Foreign Fiend
What?
ReplyDeleteProfessor Dutchman,
ReplyDeleteYou are completely in the right....crush the students any way you can, the grade inflation horsecrap ends in your class. You can't lay a finger on them, but you can crush their GPAs.
Ruin them for their own good.
Uh....
ReplyDeleteI'm a bit confused, too. I'm all for holding the line on grade inflation, insisting that students follow directions, and valuing quality over quantity. But I'm wondering:
ReplyDelete--How do you know this particular evaluation was written by CC?
--How did CC know how much other students wrote, and what grades they got?
Also:
ReplyDeleteWhat's so wonderful about Tide? I tend to buy All myself unless something else is on sale, but I can't say I have a strong preference, other than for a fragrance-free version of whatever I'm buying.
But grade inflation doesn't matter. My hierarchy talks about it, but also makes it abundantly clear that it doesn't really matter.
ReplyDeleteI wrote this, just to prove that even insane ramblings will receive comments from the text-creating-monster that is the handful of people trying to make this site relevant.
ReplyDeletei will post something later today under another alias that will be even more incomprehensible, and it will generate comments, too...
SAD!