Day 2 of grading
Posted 07-25-2010 at 02:24 PM by EmmyNoether
I did finish grading my exams much to the dismay of myself and I know, come tomorrow, my students. The exam was out of 132 total points, the high was a 114, the low was a 49 and the average was 71.5. Remember a time when an A was actually a 90%-100%, a B was 80%-89%... etc and an F was anything lower than 59%? According to that rubric, 12 out of my 16 students should have failed. The killer is that I was actually very VERY generous with partial credit. Even when a student made a really stupid math error like (2/3+1= 5/2), I only took off a single point for that.
I wonder if the complacency of our education system is what is really to blame. Back in the day where we were all held accountable to the hard rubric, we would strive to achieve grades in those ranges. However, I wonder if the fact that a 59% can be considered a C now-a-days allows students to bunk-off a bit when it comes to pushing themselves harder. To me it is still absurd to say the average, a C, is a 56 when in my heart that is flat out failing. Maybe that absurdity has caused students to rightfully see through the arbitrariness of grades and what they mean. If you get a 56 in High school it is a failure, if you get one in College, all of the sudden it becomes satisfactory? Is it that we're dropping our standards as we get to the higher level of education?
Sometimes I think we are - especially, since I have even admitted to only taking partial points off when they make gross mathematical errors that wouldn't been acceptable in grade school. Maybe we rationalize this by the fact that each subsequent level weeds out more and more unqualified people... However, my counterargument to that is: the people who aren't going on to college are most likely the types of people who wouldn't want to go to an institution like mine, so the standards here should still be met.
I feel torn. On one hand, I want to give my students credit for taking a summer class and push the curve up. On the other, I want to scare them into working as hard as they will need to in order to succeed. My hands are kind of tied in a certain sense. I'm teaching a course by at a reputable university which does (to some extent have standards). Therefore, if I drop my standards and expectations for my students I let down the university. However, I feel like if I fail a ton of students when they are working around the clock in an impossible situation (this course really needs breaks between each class to let the material sink in), I feel like I'm letting them down.
I wonder if the complacency of our education system is what is really to blame. Back in the day where we were all held accountable to the hard rubric, we would strive to achieve grades in those ranges. However, I wonder if the fact that a 59% can be considered a C now-a-days allows students to bunk-off a bit when it comes to pushing themselves harder. To me it is still absurd to say the average, a C, is a 56 when in my heart that is flat out failing. Maybe that absurdity has caused students to rightfully see through the arbitrariness of grades and what they mean. If you get a 56 in High school it is a failure, if you get one in College, all of the sudden it becomes satisfactory? Is it that we're dropping our standards as we get to the higher level of education?
Sometimes I think we are - especially, since I have even admitted to only taking partial points off when they make gross mathematical errors that wouldn't been acceptable in grade school. Maybe we rationalize this by the fact that each subsequent level weeds out more and more unqualified people... However, my counterargument to that is: the people who aren't going on to college are most likely the types of people who wouldn't want to go to an institution like mine, so the standards here should still be met.
I feel torn. On one hand, I want to give my students credit for taking a summer class and push the curve up. On the other, I want to scare them into working as hard as they will need to in order to succeed. My hands are kind of tied in a certain sense. I'm teaching a course by at a reputable university which does (to some extent have standards). Therefore, if I drop my standards and expectations for my students I let down the university. However, I feel like if I fail a ton of students when they are working around the clock in an impossible situation (this course really needs breaks between each class to let the material sink in), I feel like I'm letting them down.
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