March 24, 2006
Is it ok for everyone to get an A in a course?
At the faculty-student forum yesterday, the conversation got most animated when one faculty panel member said that it would not be a good thing if everyone got an A in a course because that would mean that the course was too easy and the grade would not mean much. Hence he had a policy that ensured that about 30-40% of students got As and another 30-40% got Bs. He said that if all the students at Case graduated with GPA 4.0, then employers might not think much of Case and this would hurt the students. He said that the standards should be such that everyone getting As would not occur.
Some students disagreed They felt that the benchmarks should be set in advance and if all students met the criteria, then they should get that grade, irrespective of how many others also achieved. They asked why should a student get a low grade just because he or she happened to enroll in a class with a high-achieving group of students. Or conversely, why should that same student get a high grade simply from being with a lower achieving group? After all, it was the same student who had learned the same things.
Everyone agreed that there should not be a fixed quota of grades or grading according to a strict curve so that some students would fail no matter what. The debate really centered on whether there should be at least some informal limits on the number of high grades (As and Bs) awarded.
It was a good, but inconclusive, discussion.
Posted by: mxs24 (Mano Singham) March 24, 2006 12:14 PM | Category:
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Posted by: mxs24 (Mano Singham) March 24, 2006 12:14 PM | Comments (0) | Trackback
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