Grade Inflation @ Harvard (attention: GERMAN language!)

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by triggersoft, Feb 21, 2002.

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  1. triggersoft

    triggersoft New Member

    Hi folks.

    One of the top 3 German weekly magazine, "Der Spiegel" issued today an articel about the Grade Inflation phaenomenon in America, especially at the famous Ivy League school Harvard.

    For those who speak German, here´s the link:

    http://www.spiegel.de/unispiegel/wunderbar/0,1518,183246,00.html

    (for the others - I try to put in a little summary in English, if you´re interested, but not before tomorrow - it´s time to go to bed now...)

    Good night...
    ;)

    Trigger
     
  2. josephwang

    josephwang New Member

    Not surprised

    This isn't surprising to anyone who has actually
    taken a course at Harvard. The grades are
    A (high pass), B (low pass) and C (failure).

    Actually, I would argue the fact that grades
    are inflated at Harvard calls into question the
    very use of grading. What grading really is
    used for is to allocate educational resources
     
  3. kajidoro

    kajidoro New Member

    Re: Not surprised

    Would a straight system of pass/fail change anything? I think UC Santa Cruz does this, but the instructors are still required to "rank" their students.

    Christian
     
  4. Dennis

    Dennis New Member

    Here are some facts from the above mentioned article:

    -last summer 91 percent of Harvard graduates received honours(sounds suspicious).
    -According to a recent statistic, students at Harvard have earned year by year better grades since the sixties.
    -There is a remark that many universities have been practically run like businesses and have experienced tough competition since the eighties, so this could be one reason for grade inflation.
    -Students are evaluating their professors so the latter refrain from giving bad grades in order to keep the job.
    -Some professors avoid giving low grades because, in their opinion, this could dismotivate the students.
    -White professors avoid giving bad marks to Afro-American students.
    -The article is drawing, among other sources, from a research on grade inflation at Harvard conducted by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

    Some additional links:
    http://www.boston.com/globe/metro/packages/harvard_honors/mansfield.htm
    http://college4.nytimes.com/guests/articles/2001/12/09/889612.xml


    Fortunatelly, in this case the computer evaluated CLEP exams, for which I'm studying now, seem to be more objective...


    Dennis Siemens
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Feb 24, 2002

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