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Jewish World Review May 4, 2001/ 11 Iyar, 5761
Marianne M. Jennings
http://www.jewishworldreview.com --
MY colleague's curiosity was piqued, "Did I just see a young woman leave
your office in tears?" Familiar with the indignities I heap upon students,
he feared federal wrath via Title VII, Title IX, or an injunction requiring a
female quarterback.
If a young woman complains to me about man's greatest brutality and crime
against nature, i.e., sexual harassment, as when a young man hoists his
eyebrows at her over a latte, I console, "Honey, take it while you can. The
day will come when you're painting on your eyebrows and getting only Richard
Simmons, sweat and oldies."
Actually all I had done was discuss grades. The young woman fled in tears
because she is getting a "B" in my course, not the "A" she envisioned.
It's not difficult for students to envision "A's." There's at least a
50/50 shot they're going to get them. At Harvard 50% of all students earn
A's or A-'s. There's only a 6% chance that a student there will get a C+
grade or lower. Literature shows that 22-33% of faculty members admit that
they inflate grades for better teaching evaluations, a weighted component of
their annual reviews and tenure processes. Seventy percent of students say
that their grades influence their evaluations of professors. One faculty
member notes, "The surest way to get poor evaluations is to be a tough grader
. . . You have to inflate grades by about a letter grade."
A 1999 study of student evaluations correlated with professors'
techniques revealed this list of "don'ts": (1) don't assign readings; (2)
don't lecture for longer than a few minutes at a time; (3) don't say anything
controversial or critical of any groups; (4) don't ask exam questions on
textbook material not covered in class; and (5) don't put too many
corrections on student papers.
The "do" list sounds like the Teletubbies' guide to good teaching
evaluations: (1) engage in impression management throughout the course (does
this mean tossing Monets about?); (2) be a pal to students, not a role model;
(3) be empathetic and patient; (4) be funny and entertaining in class; (5)
pander to students' sociopolitical biases; (6) include interactive exercises
in class; (7) give effusive praise to students; (8) extend deadlines for
projects and papers; and (9) bring pizza or donuts on the last day of class.
"Everybody else does it," is rationalization, but not justification for
rampant grade inflation. Over the last 25 years as the number of college
students who require remedial course work has increased to 50%, the number of
students earning "A's" has increased to that same amount. While SAT scores
show no appreciable gains, college students' performance now exceeds that of
all previous generations.
Why don't faculty take charge and give students the grades they deserve?
In many cases they serve under litigation-shy administrators. Professor Bob
Brown of California University in Pennsylvania was fired after 28 years of
teaching because he refused to change the failing grade of one of his
graduate students who had missed 12 of the 15 classes in the course and had
not completed most of the assignments. President Angelo Armenti Jr. changed
the same student's grade in an American Literature class from a failing grade
to a "P."
Another reason, articulated by Harvey Mansfield, a professor of political
philosophy at Harvard University who has resisted grade inflation since his
first class there in 1962, is that those professors who grade legitimately
punish their students. Professor Mansfield recently succumbed to grade
inflation. He gives two grades to students - the one that goes on their
transcripts and the one they really deserve.
This is the self-esteem generation buoyed by feigned achievement. One
child development expert frets, "As soon as you get into some of the more
complicated things, kids may experience failure. They may feel like they're
stupid." Fact is, there are stupid people whose talents lie in areas other
than political philosophy and calculus. Liberal elites snobbishly perpetuate
the myth that a life without college is not worth living.
Through affirmative action, the community college system and inflated high
school grades, many students who don't belong land in four-year institutions
unprepared for the challenge. Without grade inflation they would flunk out -
something that hasn't happened since Al Gore tried divinity school.
The student who ran crying from my office must live with the social disgrace
of a B. I will weather a time-consuming and aggravating grade appeal.
Ironically, this student deserves a C at best, but grade inflation has gotten
to me. Like Professor Mansfield I grew weary of punishing my students and
being tanked on that evaluation question: fairness of grading. I was
called, in the lingo of today, way harsh. Now, instead of C's I give B's and
instead of B's I give A's. But in the world of self-esteem, I am a most
effective teacher. With some PC and donuts, I'll be
04/27/01: The Horowitz revelations as seen by a college professor
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