Dr. Fitch Summary

Education is a long-term investment. We, as students, work hard to acquire knowledge and to hone our skills so that we may use them one day. The effort we put into a single assignment should be considered as both for that specific assignment and for our rounding as complete, educated individuals. And with this mindset, students should be motivated even more to put more effort and hard work into academics, with the goal of bettering themselves for the future and advancing their prospects as individuals. And with this hard work and effort will come progress, and this progress should be reflected in the grading—not necessarily on individual assignments, but on the student’s education as a

In his essay “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s”, Brent Staples argues that many colleges have less vigorous grading rubrics than in years past because of the increase in student-consumers. Consequently, this “new” grading policy has led to an increase in A’s that are awarded to students. A few factors have led to this unfair distribution. Firstly, students who earn high grades in poorly attended classes assure that these classes will remain viable in the future. Secondly, high grades guarantee the presence of student consumers at a college {REWORD}. Additionally, the tenure status or salary of a professor may be affect if (s)he does not give out high grades to students, leading to disapproving evaluations.

To counter the constant negativity, he also exemplifies solutions for fixing grade inflation. For example, Brent Staples references Valen Johnson’s proposal for a grade point average reform that accounts the selected major into the grade point average system (389). With this example, the reform will significantly decrease the median grade point average and reward those who achieve high grades in courses related to their respective major. Behind this positive message, Brent Staples still criticizes college administrators for prioritizing their public image over a legitimate grading system without the complaining tone in the majority of his essay. Furthermore, Brent Staple’s examples do solve an actual issue and not a phantom problem. In 1975 alone, there was over tens times more bachelors in psychology than there were available jobs for them (Bird 424). Because the current grading system allows for counterfeit grade point averages, there are an excessive number of psychology bachelors. Brent Staples provided solutions because this issue proves his criticisms in

There is proof in the pudding. This cliché has been used an immeasurable amount of times to express that evidence to the claim leads to its legitimacy. It has been speculated for many years that grades are being inflated, and students are receiving A’s for mediocre work. In fact, the introduction of Alfie Kohn’s “The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation” shows reports of the matter made by Harvard Professor Harvey Mansfield and Harvard’s Committee on Raising the Standard, respectively, with a gap of over a century (pg. 1). Kohn expresses his take on the matter of grade inflation and asserts that these accusations are false and

In sports, investigators utilize individual records or diversion measurements to analyze competitors. In this manner, groups utilize those estimations make discovering players a great deal less demanding. In like manner, grades measure an understudy's capacities, qualities, and shortcomings in the classroom. In Paul Goodman's passage entitled "A Proposal to Abolish Grading," he contends that Ivy alliance Universities ought to annul grades. His reasons are that understudies organize tests instead of discover significance to new learning. In the event that evaluations are canceled understudies will have the capacity to take in the material without the anxiety. Despite the fact that Goodman unequivocally concentrates on renowned schools, is an issue that worries each school. For it makes one wonder if grades are truly essential to quantify an understudy's capacity to learn. Goodman trusts that the present understudies will just do what is insignificantly required for them to pass their class. From my own understanding, understudies that are staggeringly decided and discover reason in acquiring new information are the ones with the most noteworthy imprints. I trust that understudies that apparent in classes they don't discover agreeable have a superior possibility of getting acknowledged into great schools and employments. It is as though the individual is stating " I will pick up anything and exceed expectations at it." what's more, educators can utilize evaluations to select

In the article A’s for Everyone, Alicia Shepard recognized a pattern in which her students placed too much emphasis on the letter grades received as opposed to the actual understanding and retention of the curriculum being taught. To understand this phenomenon, Shepard drew upon both the historical catalyst which led to it and her personal experience as a college professor. The systematic indoctrination of the importance of letter grades originated during the Vietnam War when "Men who got low grades could be drafted," (p. 3, par. 4). This having occurred, the pressure to obtain a higher grade became less about gaining knowledge and more about regurgitating information to receive an A. Subsequently, future generations stressed to their offspring

Dr. Cable is a special, a person whose more superior than a pretty but less superior than an extra. You become a Special when you overcome the lesions that were transmitted into your brain after the you go through the “pretty operation”. In order to get rid of these lesions, which basically eat away at your brain making you dumb, you must join a mentally demanding job. I never liked Dr. Cable, from the time she was introduced in the book from the time David hit her with a crowbar and it was the last we heard of her. This line she said in the story really made my opinion about her enhanced because she gave Tally fault for a problem she did not cause. For people who don’t know me, that is one of my biggest pet peeves, when someone blames

While reading Ken Bain’s book “What the Best College Students Do” of the five different types of students he describes, I feel like I fall under the label of one having mediocre grades but achieving success. I make good grades, however I do not necessarily believe my grades always reflect my hard work, determination and effort put in, similar to his theory on false hope in standardized testing. Throughout my school career, I have consistently made A and B grades. I can remember only one C grade, which was a quarter grade, and very disappointing, but a lesson learned. At the same time though, and as Bain helped me realize through his text, grades are not everything and making a C is not something that is going to kill me; there is simply more to school than a letter grade. In fact he points out through most of the 1800s schools only used two grades, pass or fail. As seen nowadays, schools have since adopted the letter grade system.

In “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s”, Staples argues that teacher inflate grades so that their course will not be canceled. Furthermore, teachers will inflate grades so that they can keep their jobs. Additionally, students are trying to find ways to get

While many believe that the grading system has a concrete standing in the success of education, other’s believe that it actually can inhibit or at least lessen the effectiveness of learning. In “A Young Person’s Guide to the Grading System,” Jerry Farber states that for the longest time, many have dismissed the fact that grades could be harmful to the learning process. He argues that grades lack the ability to bring about self-discipline within the students learning the content. While the educational system has rendered changes throughout the years, the grading system maintains its virginity and has been fairly untouched. He insists that many educators are in strong belief that grades are the only way to ensure that learning is to take place within the classroom. Most of society would dictate that the system has been fairly effective in getting individuals through their schooling. But as Farber points out, students tend to focus more upon the grades they are receiving and less upon the content itself. Throughout his writing, Faber uses many forms of rhetoric to persuade the reader to believe the fact that the grading system is corrupted and should be changed, and offers a solution which is referred to as the Credit System. With this being said, it can be stated that Farber effectively conveys his argument through his appeal to a younger

In the course of contemporary, academic events, it becomes necessary for a group to dissolve or partially dissolve the ties which connect them to grades and assume freedom from these potentially fickle indicators of performance. Such a dissolution would require students to

In his article "Making the Grade," Kurt Wiesenfeld presents a problem regarding the ethical value of grades in modern society. A physics professor, Wiesenfeld opens the article by making the "rookie error" of being in his "office the day after final grades were posted." (paragraph 1) Several students then attempt to influence him to change their grades for the class. What concerns Wiesenfeld is that many of his more recent students consider a grade to be a negotiable commodity rather than accept the grade as an accurate representation of efforts and performance and how much they learned. The author indicates that part of this

Schools and college professors, who give you a good grade for excellent productivity on assignments, allow students to perform poorly, but still benefit relative to a person with an A. Two articles that observe grade inflation, find the rising problems of grade inflation, and finding solutions for grade inflation. Stuart Rojstaczer, an author from Grade Inflation Gone Wild, is a professor of geophysics at Duke university, and created gradeinflation.com in regards for his concern about grade inflation. On the other hand, Phil Primack is a journalist and teacher at Tufts University, and published in the “Boston Globe” Doesn’t Anybody Get a C Anymore? While college students, who work with little effort and still attain easy A’s by working poorly on assignments and exams, Primack and Rojstaczer, develop a firm connection towards grade inflation and the solution that can regain control over real education.

A look back at the institution of education over the past 20 years will reveal that once upon a time a bachelor’s degree was long since considered the marker of ultimate success, the highest level of achievement that one could make in their lives. In those days, if for some reason you failed to march across the stage on graduation day after an epic, four-year stretch of high tuition, long nights studying, and unrelenting professors that found great joy in riding your back, then you had indeed failed at life.

Some universities wanted to use the Johnson plan of calculating grade point average differently than before, but this plan would make student’s academic careers much more complicated. Staples exclaims “Valen Johnson, a Duke University statistics professor, came under heavy fire when he proposed recalculating the grade point average to give rigorously graded courses greater weight” (412). Johnson proposed this plan thinking that it would help students be more successful, but all it would do was make everything very worse. Under this plan all courses would be given the same equal weight, but this plan would have many drawbacks. Depending on what major a student had, that student would be required to take certain courses