Reply to Harvard faculty vote to limit A grades to no more than 20% of the class

Forum Index » College and University Discussion

Reply to "Harvard faculty vote to limit A grades to no more than 20% of the class"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][url]https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/harvard-students-furious-over-plan-061700240.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAD1z6z1tIcGmU6fPqnH5QWV3uhzTpM1vKxuoDMfgIee8pKP5-5Jb2PVaqz2ABIctsxhvgX_k7FT1BF1tMxd7scdKqylNQ9MyzBHFXhXce8vi81WmCLoE2DHUFETMwEofazciWuf8_94YZ2pbZPSP7FJSzRoXpo3Jc13EklHRFRj-[/url]

The proposal under consideration would limit A grades in undergraduate courses to no more than 20% of the class plus four additional students. Roughly 60% of grades were an A in the academic year ending in mid-2025 at Harvard, more than double the rate in 2006. That fell to 53% in the fall semester after Harvard urged faculty to be more disciplined.

the Harvard vote has the potential to be a catalyst for wider changes. If one of the country’s best known and most prestigious universities declares grade inflation a problem, it could inspire other schools to do the same[/quote]

A strict cap on A grades is especially harmful to STEM and engineering classes because these courses are often designed around objective problem-solving rather than subjective evaluation. In many STEM courses, it is entirely possible for a large portion of the class to genuinely earn an A by correctly solving problems and mastering the material. Artificially limiting A grades means students could be penalized even when they meet the standard for excellence.

This is different from many discussion, or writing-based classes, where grading can be more comparative and subjective. In STEM, there is often a clear right answer. If 40% of a calculus or engineering class demonstrates mastery, forcing half of them below an A makes grades less accurate, not more meaningful.
The policy would punish success in rigorous technical courses instead of reflecting actual understanding.[/quote]

You are extremely wrong. STEM grades can be deflated by creating very difficult questions and not spoon feeding example problems throughout the quarter. The burden is on the faculty to create this and create different ones for each section and semester to stay ahead of the Chinese cheaters and frats collecting old tests. An additional mechanism to deflate is to grant no partial credit for any questions.

Humanities courses however evaluated subjectively. What happens in deflation is the papers are rank stacked. Ideally without bias but that is really impossible not to do as a human being. Bias isn’t just racial or gender but bias toward interest, style and other things not intended as part of the evaluation. [/quote]
What’s the purpose of very difficult questions if you aren’t preparing the students for that content? At some point, you’re no longer teaching and just dick measuring- which is great, only fans is always available, but that is not the point of an undergraduate college.

Also why try anything new in this system if you know there’s at least 10-20% of people who are selected by the institution to be really good at x subject.[/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics