Re: Concerned About Grades

[Robert A Cohen <bbq@ESU.EDU>]

On Fri, 6 Oct 2000, Michael Edmiston wrote:

> During advising, knowledge of a student's standardized-exam score helps.
> Knowledge of college grades helps, but not as much as it used to.  Knowledge
> of high school grades helps even less.  I was under the impression we were
> discussing this because we are asking if there is anything we can do to make
> this situation better.  If not, so be it.  But let's not blow it off by
> saying "life is unfair."

Before Bluffton starts ignoring HS rank entirely, may I suggest that they
instead follow a policy that states:

a. HS GPA will not be used unless the average HS GPA at the school was
between 2 and 3.

b. HS rank will not be used unless the s.d. of grades at the HS was at
least some value.

This policy would have the benefit of forcing the system back toward
something that is useful.

On Fri, 6 Oct 2000, Tim O'Donnell wrote:

> I had a class where all but one were getting an A; the one was
> getting a B.  Nobody said anything to me.
> I had another class where all were failing except one; the one was
> getting a D.  I was read the riot act by the principal and told that
> this situation was completely unacceptable.  I like my job so I
> bumped up the grades.

The problem is that right now the principal is getting pressure from
parents to increase GPA.  What we need is some real pressure from colleges
to decrease GPA.

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| Robert Cohen               Department of Physics       |
|                            East Stroudsburg University |
| bbq@esu.edu                East Stroudsburg, PA  18301 |
| http://www.esu.edu/~bbq/   (570) 422-3428              |
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