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Re: Grade Inflation (Was: Student Evaluations of Teaching)



On Sat, 1 Jan 2000, Herbert H Gottlieb wrote:

> On Sat, 01 Jan 2000 18:53:23 -0500 Jerome Epstein
> <jerepst@WORLDNET.ATT.NET> writes:
>
> > If a gpa of 3.67 reflects the same kind of work as a gpa of 2.67 25
> > years ago, we are badly misleading the students -- and ourselves.
> > I think it is a scandal.
>
> Yes... But.... Does a dollar today purchase the same amount of groceries
> tat it did 25 years ago?

The problem with that comparision is that there's no "top" on the dollar
scale, whereas there *is* a "top" on the grade scale: 100% or 4.0 or
whatever. Hmmm... what if we were allowed to "inflate" the top end so
that the max would now be somewhere between 120% and 150% (or somewhere
between 5.0 and 6.0?)? Just imagine what grade inflation might look like
then!

--
Jon Bell <jtbell@presby.edu> Presbyterian College
Dept. of Physics and Computer Science Clinton, South Carolina USA

That's just what is happening in many states. North Carolina offers
students a 1 GPA point boost for a course labeled "honors" and a 2
point boost for an AP or IB course. This means that if it were
possible to take all AP or IB courses during high school, such a
student has the potential for a 6.0 GPA. Of course, it's pretty hard
to take all honors or
AP courses, so the maximum GPA one can achieve will vary from student
to student, but it is not at all unlikely for a student to end up
with a GPA greater than 4.0. In fact, it is routine to read the
listings for valedictorian and salutatorians at our local high
schools and see that their GPA is often well above 4.0

This "boost" is not a percentage or fractional increase. An A gives 6
points, a B 5, and so on, down to an F which gives 2 points. In other
words you can do absolutely nothing in this course, fail with a "0"
average, and still get the same GPA score as getting a C in a regular
course gives.

Two thoughts come to mind. First, such a scheme could (and maybe
does) seduce a school into labeling a lot of course that shouldn't be
as honors or AP, and second, I don't believe for a minute that
colleges are fooled by such goings on (unless they want to be). I
have been told by several college admissions people that they
recompute the GPA for the students who apply, eliminating the courses
that they don't think merit consideration. I would think they could
readjust inflated course designations just as easily.

Hugh


Hugh Haskell
<mailto://hhaskell@mindspring.com>

Let's face it. People use a Mac because they want to, Windows because they
have to..
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