Voluntary conscription: enlisting the children of Lake Wobegone in the battle against grade inflation.

Voluntary conscription: enlisting the children of Lake Wobegone in the battle against grade inflation. As a teacher of composition at a public university, I sometimesfeel that a sizable portion of my time goes to alerting students. Like acanary in a coalmine, my prime mission is to provide warning. Forexample, I warn my students about the dangers of plagiarism Using ideas, plots, text and other intellectual property developed by someone else while claiming it is your original work. , thenecessity of revision, and the over-reliance on electronicspellcheckers. Often, I apprise my students of the limits of usinganecdotal evidence anecdotal evidence,n information obtained from personal accounts, examples, and observations. Usually not considered scientifically valid but may indicate areas for further investigation and research. in formal academic arguments. "Anecdotalevidence," I counsel, "is always suspect." That concernnot withstanding, I can't help begin this undertaking with a pairof stories. One day during my first year of teaching, a student lostself-control in my office. As our meeting continued, gentle sobbingturned to uncontrollable wailing, and she berated me for her"horrible" grade. I let her vent for a while and, after a bit,she settled down. The only casualties from the incident were a once-fullbox of Kleenex tissues and a picture frame, but for a brief moment I wasgenuinely alarmed. What was the "horrible" grade that broughton these Niobe-like lamentations? An A minus. Sometime later, as I prepared a conference version of this paper,(1) I received the previous semester's student evaluations from theDepartment of Arts and Sciences. Here at Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, generally known as Louisiana State University or LSU, is a public, coeducational university located in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and the main campus of the Louisiana State University System. ,student evaluation forms are in two parts. The first part of the form iscomposed of the familiar rate-on-a-scale-of-one-through-five stylequestions covering course content, instructor availability, requiredtexts, etc. The second part of the LSU LSU Louisiana State UniversityLSU Large SubunitLSU La Salle University (Philadelphia, PA)LSU La Sierra UniversityLSU Link State Update (OSPF)LSU Learning Support Unit form is somewhat more specific;it allows instructors to tailor questions based on their own interests.I spend a great deal of time composing questions in this section and Iusually find the student responses beneficial as I make changes in mycourses from semester to semester. As I paged through the evaluations,one particular student comment stood out: in answer to a question Iposed regarding the efficacy of small group peer review sessionscompared to class-wide peer review sessions, the student ignored myquery and simply scrawled the missive, "you grade to hard"[sic]. Perhaps what these two stories illustrate--other than, if anything,I grade to [sic] liberally--is that many undergraduates areunconditionally and unrealistically focused on grades. Some studentsview college as an accreditation process not unlike a Driver'sEducation course. If, under this line of thinking, completion ofDriver's Ed results in a license to operate a motor vehicle, thencompletion of the undergraduate course of studies bestows economicsecurity. This mindset mind��setor mind-setn.1. A fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person's responses to and interpretations of situations.2. An inclination or a habit. is often at odds with the mindset of thestudent's instructors. Many instructors remember their own collegeyears as quests for enlightenment and erudition er��u��di��tion?n.Deep, extensive learning. See Synonyms at knowledge.Eruditionof editors—Hare.Noun 1. in the tradition ofMatthew Arnold--or at least in the tradition of the young scholars inthe film Dead Poet's Society. Given this gap in perceptions,communication between instructor and student can become difficult. Anymention of education as a means to an inquisitive and critical mind orany reflection on the pure joy of learning by the instructor is met witha combination of eye-roll and sigh. It is a reaction with which anyparent in North America North America,third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. is familiar. Many instructors are dumbfounded dumb��foundalso dum��found ?tr.v. dumb��found��ed, dumb��found��ing, dumb��foundsTo fill with astonishment and perplexity; confound. See Synonyms at surprise. bythe students' attitude of callous indifference. "What do theywant?" the faculty members ask in bewildered exasperation. The answer is simple: students want high grades. What is more, theyseem to be getting them. To those who have followed the controversy, thefacts are all too familiar: 82% of Harvard's graduating class of2000 received some sort of honors (Israel 2001); 43% of all gradesawarded at Brown in the 1999-2000 academic year were A's (Kudeisa2001), as were 46% of all grades at Northwestern in the same year (Greer2001). Newsweek reports that the "average" grade at DukeUniversity now approaches an A minus (Pederson 1997, 64). Despite the media's tendency to focus on the nation'smost prestigious institutions and a nagging notion that grade inflationis only an Ivy League Ivy LeagueGroup of eight universities in the northeastern U.S., high in academic and social prestige, that are members of an athletic conference for intercollegiate gridiron football dating to the 1870s. problem, the large state-run universities seem tobe no better at holding the line on grades than are privateinstitutions. For example, a recent independent study singled out thestate-run University of Washington as an institution with particularlyegregious grade inflation (Borchers 2003). Other state-run institutionsface similar problems; in 2001, the Registrar's Office ofUniversity of Arizona (body, education) University of Arizona - The University was founded in 1885 as a Land Grant institution with a three-fold mission of teaching, research and public service. reported a seven percent rise in the number ofA's and B's since 1991 (Williamson 2002). Washington StateUniversity reports a rise in average undergraduate GPA GPAabbr.grade point averageNoun 1. GPA - a measure of a student's academic achievement at a college or university; calculated by dividing the total number of grade points received by the total number attempted from 2.84 in 1975to 2.94 in 2002 (Ellison 2003) According to according toprep.1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.2. In keeping with: according to instructions.3. a recent Grade DistributionReport from the English Department Noun 1. English department - the academic department responsible for teaching English and American literaturedepartment of Englishacademic department - a division of a school that is responsible for a given subject at Louisiana State University inBaton Rouge Baton Rouge(băt`ən rzh)[Fr.,=red stick], city (1990 pop. 219,531), state capital and seat of East Baton Rouge parish, SE La. , one section of an introductory first-year writing course in2002 reported that an astonishing 94.1% of the participants received anA (Nardo 2002). Despite these troubling figures, I do not wish to use this essay torehash re��hash?tr.v. re��hashed, re��hash��ing, re��hash��es1. To bring forth again in another form without significant alteration: rehashing old ideas.2. To discuss again. the same old statistics or to point an accusatory finger at anyone institution or person. Rather, I would like to discuss some of thecharacteristics I have noticed in the conversation about gradeinflation: its lack of historical sense, its sense of blame, itstendency to reduce all educational matters to mere dollars and cents,and its combative language. Then, having illustrated the tenor of thegrade inflation debate, I would like to look at it as a local, classroomlevel problem. To that end, the second part of this essay will outline aclassroom exercise designed to prepare both teacher and student tocombat grade inflation. The classroom exercise upends some of those samefeatures found in the grade inflation debate and uses students'inclinations to help them understand the scarcity of human excellenceand why the evaluations students receive do not always meet theirexpectations. In 2001, Harvard professor Harvey C. Mansfield, tired of facingdeclining enrollments in his classes due to his reputation as a toughgrader, made a series of public announcements touting his adoption of anew grading system. Under his new system, Mansfield would assign eachstudent two grades. An inflated, puffed up A or A minus would berecorded on the student's official college transcript.Additionally, in a private conference, the student would be informed ofMansfield's more unadulterated and realistic perception of thestudent's progress. The story of Mansfield's new gradingprocedures made for good copy for the sort of"Now-We've-Seen-It-All ... Man-Bites-Dog" features withwhich newspapers, magazines, and nightly news Nightly News may refer to NBC Nightly News in the United States ITV News at 10.30 in the United Kingdom broadcasts are so anxiousto use to round out their coverage. However, as the story swirled aroundMansfield, some journalists presented the grade inflation back-story asif they had recently "discovered" grade inflation. AKnight-Ridder/Tribune News editorial of June 2001 was typical of thisline of thinking; it trussed up the grade inflation tale in the samesort of alarmist a��larm��ist?n.A person who needlessly alarms or attempts to alarm others, as by inventing or spreading false or exaggerated rumors of impending danger or catastrophe. language (complete with exclamation points) that themainstream media usually reserve for the disease-of-the-week, killerants, or a rise in the Department of Homeland Security's terroristthreat level (College 2001). Other media outlets replicated thissky-is-falling mindset: The Roeper Review fretted, "Ultimately, Ibelieve we have to face the fact that we are a nation in decline,precisely because of our valuing of mediocrity over excellence"(Sternberg 1996, 172). Positions such as the one delineated in TheRoeper Review are alarmist and shaky in their command of facts; to callgrade inflation a "valuing of mediocrity over excellence"isn't correct. Grade inflation might conflate con��flate?tr.v. con��flat��ed, con��flat��ing, con��flates1. To bring together; meld or fuse: "The problems [with the biopic]include . . mediocrity withexcellence or it might accept mediocrity in lieu of excellence, but itdoes not privilege mediocrity over excellence. Tenuous command of factsnotwithstanding, nothing seems to attract editors and readers likerighteous indignation, and a torrent of grade inflation stories was soonseen in print--many of them heavily relying on conjecture andhypothesis. By mid 2001 it was clear that it had become open season on grading,professors, and--most of all--students. Many pundits wryly dubbed thenation's students "the children of Lake Wobegone." (2)Other journalists covering grade inflation wrote with a belligerent toneof moral disdain, as if grades fell into a perfect bell curve until 1995or so when a pack of whiny, slacker undergrads This article is about the television show. For the educational term, see undergraduate education.This article or section does not cite its .You can Wikipedia by introducing appropriate citations. aided and abetted byspineless, liberal professors tossed the venerable bell curve onto thedustbin of history and opened the floodgates to allow a horde ofunder-motivated, under-achieving, undereducated, underbred,underdressed, marauding ma��raud?v. ma��raud��ed, ma��raud��ing, ma��raudsv.intr.To rove and raid in search of plunder.v.tr.To raid or pillage for spoils. Mongols into the previously unsullied EmeraldCity of educational excellence. Forbes magazine's Dan Seligmansneered that those of us in "educationland""swindle swindlev. to cheat through trick, device, false statements or other fraudulent methods with the intent to acquire money or property from another to which the swindler is not entitled. Swindling is a crime as one form of theft. (See: fraud, theft) " the truly superior students when we bestow highmarks too easily (2002, 94). True enough, perhaps, but Seligman'sattitude reflects the supposition that such "truly superior"students (a group undoubtedly encompassing the author's progeny)can be easily and readily identified or cut from the herd. Perceptionsof grade inflation are not unlike comedian Bill Cosby's story of afather who tells his spoiled children tales of his own boyhood hardshipsin which the father, as a youngster, walks to school ten miles in thesnow up hill--both ways. As a respondent to the "Letters to theEditor" section of The Seattle Times put it, "what is sobaffling baf��fle?tr.v. baf��fled, baf��fling, baf��fles1. To frustrate or check (a person) as by confusing or perplexing; stymie.2. To impede the force or movement of.n.1. about grade inflation [is] ... people look back on some GoldenAge of schooling when students were orderly and teachers were good. Butthat's absurd" (Grosskoph 2001). Of course, the respondent to the Seattle Times is correct; suchlack of historical perspective is absurd. Educators and administratorshave been concerned about grade inflation for quite some time. Forexample, concern about declining academic standards and puffed-upevaluations appears in the writings of such nineteenth-centuryluminaries as George Bernard Shaw, Anthony Trollope, John Stuart The name John Stuart can refer to: John Stuart, 4th Earl of Atholl (d. 1579) John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713–1792), Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1762–1763. Mill,Thomas Hughes, John Hughes, John (Joseph)(1797–1864) Catholic prelate; born in County Tyrone, Ireland. Emigrating to the U.S.A. in 1817 and ordained in 1826, he did pastoral work in Philadelphia, and after becoming coadjutor bishop of New York (1838), succeeded four years later Henry Newman, and (of course) Thomas Carlyle. AsGregory Stanley and Lawrence Baines said in the education journal TheClearinghouse, It is commonplace for one generation to denounce the next one as soft.... In describing the importance of effort and accomplishment to our students, we are sure that we risk sounding like our fathers spinning fables about walking to school through six feet of snow." (Stanley and Baines 2001, 227) In the world of grade inflation, each passing generation isabsolutely convinced that it labors under a rigorous and unbending bellcurve as students; later, it becomes convinced that the lofty standardsto which it was subjected to as students have evaporated into a mist ofrelativism and "A for effort." Another feature of the grade inflation's rhetoric is its lackof a clearly defined subject. Often, grade inflation is presented assome other institutions' problem. In this way, grade inflation isnot unlike reckless driving reckless drivingn. operation of an automobile in a dangerous manner under the circumstances, including speeding (or going too fast for the conditions, even though within the posted speed limit), driving after drinking (but not drunk), having too many passengers in , incivility in��ci��vil��i��ty?n. pl. in��ci��vil��i��ties1. The quality or condition of being uncivil.2. An uncivil or discourteous act. , or long-winded conferencepresentations--we are all sure that it happens, and we are equally surethat someone else does it. This facet of the controversy is especiallyapparent in the student-run campus newspapers. For example, Mark Greer,writing in the Daily Northwestern, happily reports that there is nograde inflation at Northwestern University Northwestern University,mainly at Evanston, Ill.; coeducational; chartered 1851, opened 1855 by Methodists. In 1873 it absorbed Evanston College for Ladies. . Greer makes this assertiondespite reporting that 46% of all grades awarded at NU are A's(2001). At Ohio State University Ohio State University,main campus at Columbus; land-grant and state supported; coeducational; chartered 1870, opened 1873 as Ohio Agricultural and Mechanical College, renamed 1878. There are also campuses at Lima, Mansfield, Marion, and Newark. , officials assure the campus paper thatgrade inflation is "not an issue" on their campus (Borchers2003). The Brown Daily Herald For the Arlington Heights, Illinois newspaper, see .The Daily Herald was a British newspaper, published in London from 1912 to 1964 (although it was weekly during the first world war). It ceased publication when it was relaunched as The Sun. declares in its headline that "GradeInflation [is] Not a Major Phenomenon at Brown," later noting that43% of Brown grades in the preceding academic year were A's(Kudesia 2001). Meanwhile, Indiana University's Indiana DailyStudent The Indiana Daily Student, or IDS for short, is an independent, student-run newspaper serving Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana, USA. Founded in 1867, the IDS is published Monday through Friday and has a circulation of 15,000 to 16,000 during the school year and is is quite certain that the problem is much more serious at IvyLeague Schools and is not a particular problem at IU (Silas 2001). Atthe University of Chicago, they're quite certain grade inflationexists--it's just that it exists at other schools (Manzann 2001).The Daily Maroon maintains this position despite a sizable increase inthe number of the awards of General Honors in recent years (2001).Memphis area professors agree that grade inflation is a problem--but notat Memphis area colleges and universities, where it does not exist(Sewell 1994, 49). Although the media have trouble pinpointing grade inflation'slocation, they have no problem finding a variety of culprits for themorass. The Cleveland Plain Dealer blames parents (Rutti 2001), TheJournal for Education in Business blames adjuncts (Sonner 2001, 5), TheNational Forum blames the humanities (Brookhart 1998, 3), The WashingtonPost blames society (Didra 1997), The Memphis Business Journal blamesthe way states fund their public universities (Sewell 1994, 49), The UVACavalier Daily blames the Viet Nam war (Hong 2001), The Ohio University Ohio University,main campus at Athens; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1804, opened 1809 as the first college in the Old Northwest. There are additional campuses at Chiillicothe, Lancaster, and Zanesville, as well as facilities throughout the state. Post blames student evaluations (Schneider 2000), The Journal ofEmployment Counseling blames criterion-referenced grading systems (Kwonet al. 1997, 50), Education Evaluation and Policy Analysis blames theway universities keep records (Kuh and Hu 1999, 320), and IndianaUniversity's Indiana Daily Student blames an excess of facultycompassion (Silas 2001). Infamously, Harvard's Harvey C. Mansfieldblames the increased presence of African-Americans on college campuses(Schneider 2001, 20; Manzann 2001). An oft-cited cause of grade inflation is increased reliance onstudent evaluations. Many media outlets, including The Ohio UniversityPost, blame grade inflation on university administrations'increased reliance on the ubiquitous end-of-the-semester-forms(Schneider 2000). Alarmingly, at some institutions, student evaluationsare the only means by which instructors are evaluated. For example, atLouisiana State University, Graduate Teaching Assistants are mentored intheir first semester by a senior faculty member and closely evaluated bythe mentor, their peers, and the Director of First-Year Composition.However, after successful completion of the first-semester program,GTAs' classrooms are never visited by senior faculty and the onlyform of evaluating GTAs comes via undergraduate student evaluations.Given an ever-shrinking job market and the known correlation betweengrades and student evaluations (Greenwald and Gillmore 1997, 1217;Krautmann and Sander 1999, 63; Martinson 2000, 77; Kamber and Briggs2002), the pressure to give students high (and sometimes undeserved)grades at institutions like LSU can be considerable. As a recent articlein Journalism and Mass Communication Educator reasoned, "only themost naive administrator would believe that a teacher in such a positionwill not 'play it safe' when it comes time to assigngrades" (Martinson 2000, 82). With the exception of the studentevaluations, grade inflation lacks a clearly defined culprit. Lacking a culprit other than the student evaluation form has eveninfected Professor Mansfield, the nation's self-appointed gradeinflation fighter. Some of Mansfield's comments indicate that hehas difficulty taking responsibility for his own inflationarytendencies. Writing in The Chronicle of Higher Education, Mansfieldconfesses, "I have seen my grades dragged gradually higher over theyears" (2001, A24). Mansfield's phrasing is significant here:he is a witness to the event; he has seen it happen, much as he mighthave seen an automobile accident Ask a Lawyer QuestionCountry: United States of AmericaState: UtahSay you're at a red light in a left hand turning lane and the light turns green so you let up slightly on the break antedating moving forward and the vehicle . Like a witness to an automobileaccident, he doesn't take any responsibility for the event. Hefurther distances himself from the phenomenon by his use of the passivevoice. If a writing teacher received such a line from a student, theteacher might ask the student to consider revising ... so, too, do wehave to revise the way we respond to this problem--it is not theirproblem; it is our problem. Real solutions to the grade inflation morasshave been hard to come by in the pages of the national magazines.Perhaps we should begin to look elsewhere. As a metaphor, "grade inflation" is a trope trope?n.1. A figure of speech using words in nonliteral ways, such as a metaphor.2. A word or phrase interpolated as an embellishment in the sung parts of certain medieval liturgies. gone wild.All too often conversations about grade inflation collapse the tensionbetween tenor and vehicle and reduce all issues to matters of dollarsand cents. As our colleagues in the Economics Department remind us,technically what we're seeing is not inflation at all but rather"compression." (3) However, the fiscal metaphor spreads likecrabgrass crabgrass,name for any of several grass species of the genera Digitaria, Eleusine, and Panicum, especially the species D. sanguinalis. Crabgrass is a common lawn weed, especially in the S and E United States. , choking off all other ways of looking at education. Forexample, the Daily Northwestern notes the existence of an "academicbull market" and insists that "college is simply a servicestudents buy" (Greer 2001). College Teaching notes that the causeof grade inflation is "a desire to please the consumer"(Basinger 1997, 91). The College Board Review worries that gradeinflation might "shortchange" students, while itsimultaneously refers to students as a "valuable economiccommodity" (Beaver 1997, 2). Outside the academy, Forbes refers tograde inflation as a "swindle" and students as"customers" (Seligman 2002, 94). Only the Chronicle of HigherEducation rose to counter the fiscal din when it meekly retorted,"the academic way of life really is different from other ways oflife" (Wolfe 2001, 20). Concomitant with a lack of a clearly defined subject and fiscalreductionism reductionism(rē·dukˑ·sh·niˑ·z is the practice of couching grade inflation in combativelanguage; simply, grade inflation discourse is just plain mean. TheEconomist points out that those beneficiaries of inflationary gradesquickly begin to "despise the system they are exploiting"("All shall have prizes" 2001). At Harvard, ProfessorMansfield refers to grade inflation as "evil" and claims tohave developed his two-tiered system two-tiered systemSocial medicine The existence of 2 levels of health benefits and care, depending on whether the Pt can afford to pay or not of grading to show his"contempt" for the university's grading system (2001,A24). In his appearance on the American Broadcasting Company's newsmagazine 20/20, Mansfield declared that there is something"sick" about grade inflation ("Give Me a Break"2001). Clearinghouse infantilizes students, stating that "themantra of 'praise first, examine quality of work later' isroutinely repeated as if students existed in some kind of perpetualpre-toddler stage" (Stanley and Baines 2000, 229). When readingbombastic, anti-student pieces like the Clearinghouse article, one mightwell wonder what role, if any, the instructor plays in grade inflation. The prevalence of military metaphors in the grade inflation debateis particularly noteworthy: while Chronicle headlines declare theprofessoriate is "shielding" its interests, NEA Today asks itsreadership how they "combat" grade inflation ("How DoYou" 2000, 27). The National Forum enjoins instructors to"give no quarter" to students lodging grade appeals (Wilson1999), while The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education refers toProfessor Mansfield's scapegoating as "an attack"("Harvard Professor" 1995, 17). Meanwhile, Gregory Stanley andLawrence Baines rally high school teachers to "blast" studentsout of their comfort zone (2000, 229). Strategy was on the mind of aDartmouth administrator when he wrote in the Chronicle of HigherEducation about "mounting a defense" against combatants likeMansfield (Perrin 1998, A68). Meanwhile, the Daily Northwestern couldnot resist a bad pun on its name in its sub-headline, "All quiet onthe Northwestern front" (Greer 2001). Knee deep in all thisattacking, defending, combating, contempt, and evil, I cannot help butfeel that there should be a way that puts the human back in humanitiesand is based on a coming together rather than a pulling apart. Of course, war metaphors are nothing new--they're (over) usedin everything from discussions of federal budgets to football games.However, in this case, I think these terms are not mere rhetoricalfireworks fireworks:see pyrotechnics. fireworksExplosives or combustibles used for display. Of ancient Chinese origin, fireworks evidently developed out of military rockets and explosive missiles and accompanied the spread of military explosives westward to but rather they indicate a substantive belligerence bel��lig��er��ence?n.A hostile or warlike attitude, nature, or inclination; belligerency.belligerenceNounthe act or quality of being belligerent or warlikebelligerence from thepartisans. In one call-to-arms the author asks teachers to "give noquarter" to students and then diverts from his stated subject andcalls for an "elimination of those extracurricular programs whoseexistence competes with and in some cases consciously subverts theacademic mission of the university" (Wilson 1999). Although thereexists no shortage of distractions on and off a modern American collegecampus, I'm not sure I see the annual Greek Week Olympics or thecampus Horticulture Club as the real root of the grade inflationproblem. In the minds of some pundits, however, the tension over gradeinflation has led to an open season on undergraduates. Others use their righteous indignation at grade inflation as fuelto fire a larger (often reactionary) social agenda. An unsignededitorial on grade inflation in The Economist praises HarveyMansfield's efforts to curb the problem before turning on its realprey--multi-cultural curriculum: "If a child lives with criticism, he learns to condemn" goes a popular creed handed out to the parents of pre-schoolers. "If a child lives with praise, he learns to appreciate; if a child lives with approval, he learns to like himself." This might be defensible when applied to the kindergarten. The trouble is that this therapeutic philosophy is spreading throughout the educational system. The idea is at the heart of "constructivist math," which emphasizes the importance of feeling good about math, rather than mastering basic techniques. It is at the heart of "Ebonics," which argues that black children should not be penalized for adopting "black speech patterns." And it is at the heart of the "I love me" sessions that proliferate in American elementary schools, in which children complete the phrase, "I am ..." with words such as "beautiful," "lovable" and "great;" when "spoiled," "bored" and "violent" often seem more accurate. ("All Shall Have Prizes" 2001) The Economist's progression from grade inflation, Ebonics, andself-esteem building exercises to a dire warning of youth violencearguably reveals more about the author's attitudes toward youngpeople than it does about the state of American education. Elementaryschool elementary school:see school. students, even at their worst, do not deserve the kind of venomthe Economist editorialist dishes out nor am I convinced thatcollege-age students deserve to be saddled with the responsibility forthe grade inflation albatross. The "us-against-them" attitude that certain academics andjournalists foster is, in large part, a fiction. Many students dislikegrade inflation as much as do faculty members. Northwestern Universityundergraduate Jill Weyers insists, "we should not have our A'shanded to us on a silver platter" (Greer 2001). Harvard studentDianne Reeder maintains, "since so many of us have A- averages, ourgrades are meaningless" (Leo Leo, in astronomyLeo[Lat.,=the lion], northern constellation lying S of Ursa Major and on the ecliptic (apparent path of the sun through the heavens) between Cancer and Virgo; it is one of the constellations of the zodiac. 1993, 22), and Library Journal evennotes that some students are hankering for a new grade, an A + +, todifferentiate from the "easy" inflated A's (Cronin 2001,70). Additionally, many students have a good grasp of the stakes: aneditorial in the student-run University of Pennsylvania (body, education) University of Pennsylvania - The home of ENIAC and Machiavelli.http://upenn.edu/.Address: Philadelphia, PA, USA. DailyPennsylvanian declares grade inflation is "inherentlydangerous" ("Grade Inflation" 2001). At Brown, the paperreasons that although the number of high grades is theoreticallyunlimited, the number of corresponding societal plumbs--lucrative jobs,law school admissions, and the like--is finite. Therefore, as gradesbecome compressed at the top, the Brown Daily Herald points out, morereliance will be placed on other, even less appetizing means of studentassessment (Kudesia 2001). If a 3.8 GPA becomes the standard, admissionscommittees and employers are likely to place even more weight onassessments such as personal recommendations and standardized tests. In some business circles, college transcripts are already losingcurrency as an assessment tool. As the chairman of Tennessee'sprestigious Andrew Jackson Institute puts it, "employers today canno longer assume that a degree ensures a certain level ofeducation" (qtd in Sewell 1994, 49). Many academics seem to agree:the College Board Review concluded simply, "college grades are nolonger accurate indicators of what students know" (Beaver 1997, 2).Perhaps a day when grades become irrelevant is already dawning: there isreason to believe that academia's reluctance to confront gradeinflation is allowing the private sector to fix it for academia. Facedwith the loss of grades as a reliable assessment tool, employers arefashioning their own tools. For example, in a recent article in TheJournal of Employment Counseling, researchers Ik-Whan Kwon et al. note"a dramatic increase in the number of organizations that administerpre-employment exams which measure everything from personality toaptitude" (1997, 50). (4) Meanwhile, Time reports that companieshave lost faith in grades and are putting more value on personalrecommendations (Barovick et al. 2002, 4). Even within academia, gradesseem to be losing currency; The Christian Science Christian Science,religion founded upon principles of divine healing and laws expressed in the acts and sayings of Jesus, as discovered and set forth by Mary Baker Eddy and practiced by the Church of Christ, Scientist. Monitor reports thatadmission officers are struggling to find new ways to rank studentssince so many of them are in the A range (Marshall 1997, 12). It is easy to become disheartened dis��heart��en?tr.v. dis��heart��ened, dis��heart��en��ing, dis��heart��ensTo shake or destroy the courage or resolution of; dispirit. See Synonyms at discourage. when surveying the landscape ofgrade inflation discourse and to view the controversy as an inescapableand sticky quagmire. The tone of the debate lacks historical perspectiveand grows progressively more belligerent as institutions insist theproblem is rampant everywhere but on their own campus; parents blameeducators, the media blame students, and everyone else blames theend-of-semester evaluation forms. However, I assert that the verycomponents of this quagmire contain the components of strategy by whichgrade inflation can be curbed. Based on the controversy's lack ofhistorical sense, its tendency to affix affixv. 1) to attach something to real estate in a permanent way, including planting trees and shrubs, constructing a building, or adding to existing improvements. blame, and its economic andcombative language--I tried to come up with a solution that would movein the opposite direction: a classroom level, student-centered positionthat seeks to form a consensus on grade inflation. We haven't been able to solve the grade inflation controversyin the pages of The Chronicle, Newsweek, or the Indiana Daily Student.Maybe we should try to solve it in the classroom. As a team ofstatistical scientists recently noted in the journal EducationEvaluation and Policy Analysis, "remedies to shortcomings ingrading practices must be collaborative and systemic" (Kuh and Hu1999, 320). Furthermore, if a key factor contributing to grade inflationis the instructor's wariness of assigning low grades in fear ofnegative teaching evaluations, then we can begin to ameliorate the gradeinflation spiral by collaborating with our students on developing aclear idea of what constitutes good, mediocre, and poor quality work. Asanyone who has worked closely with young people will attest,today's students are not averse to rigorous standards. Anappreciation of high standards is even visible in their shibboleths. Inteen-speak anything that doesn't "blow" is consideredacceptable and the simple "s'allright" indicates highpraise indeed. The knowledge that young people are not averse to high standardscoupled with the desire to develop a collaborative and systemic answerto grade inflation led me to collaborate not with the faculty but withthe students. I call the exercise "Distention dis��ten��tionor dis��ten��sionn.The act of distending or the state of being distended.distention,n a state of dilation. StateUniversity," and I usually schedule it toward the end of thesemester. It takes one fifty-minute class period to complete, and itsobjective is to help students evaluate their own work and the work oftheir peers in a more objective manner. If the students have a cleareridea of what real excellence entails, I hypothesize hy��poth��e��size?v. hy��poth��e��sized, hy��poth��e��siz��ing, hy��poth��e��siz��esv.tr.To assert as a hypothesis.v.intr.To form a hypothesis. that they will beless likely to "punish" their instructor via the studentevaluation forms. Hence, the instructor will feel more at liberty toavoid puffing up grades. Therefore, students may receive more accurateassessments of their work and the inflationary spiral may be curbed. At the class meeting immediately preceding the exercise, I assignthe students a simple homework task: for example, if I conduct theexercise at the end of the semester, then I ask them to write a samplefinal exam Noun 1. final exam - an examination administered at the end of an academic termfinal examination, finalexam, examination, test - a set of questions or exercises evaluating skill or knowledge; "when the test was stolen the professor had to make a new set of question for use in our year-end review. I tell them I planto collect and grade the assignments, but I give them no further hintson the importance or scope of the exercise (see Appendix A). On the day of the exercise, I collect the assignments immediatelyafter taking attendance. I am careful to ask if there are any morehomework assignments coming in before declaring the matter closed. Then,I ask the students to answer a series of questions aimed at establishinga class-wide consensus on what constitutes excellent, mediocre, and poorquality work. (I use three levels of evaluation rather than the five wetraditionally use in letter grading for simplicity's sake.) I askquestions such as, "What percentage of the movies released everyyear would you deem 'excellent'?" However, anything thatcan reasonably be ranked as excellent, mediocre, or poor will fit. Having read the press's reporting of the grade inflationcontroversy, one might reason that today's young people naivelybelieve that everything is magnificent. If their work is always A level,then it would stand to reason that the things which they come in contactwith--their fast-food franchises, their cars, and theirentertainment--would replicate that standard of consistent excellence.However, my admittedly unscientific unscientificUnproven, see there experiment demonstrates thattoday's students are particularly exacting. For example, in lastsummer's class, one student insisted that 96% of the teachers hehad studied under administered poor quality instruction. Another poorfellow declared that 0% of his romantic partners deserved a rating ofexcellent. For the purposes of the exercise, I try to establish abreakdown of about 33% per category and I usually have to cajole (language) CAJOLE - (Chris And John's Own LanguagE) A dataflow language developed by Chris Hankin <clh@doc.ic.ac.uk> and John Sharp at Westfield College.["The Data Flow Programming Language CAJOLE: An Informal Introduction", C.L. students to be so generous. Once we've established a class-wide"excellence consensus," we turn back to the homeworkassignments. Only then do I tell the students exactly how the exercisewill progress. I announce that for one day we are not going to be at LouisianaState University anymore; we are going to be at a fictional place I call"Distention State University." While at the fictional DSU 1. (communications) DSU - Data Service Unit.2. DSU - Disk Subsystem Unit (Artecon).3. (humour) DSU - Dwarf Storage Unit. , weare all going to get promotions: they are going from first-year studentsall the way to faculty and I am going from Graduate Teaching Associateall the way to Chancellor. As "Chancellor," I am going to givemy "faculty" a task: I want them to evaluate last night'shomework assignments with one of three grades: 1, 2, or 3. In thisgrading scheme, 1 denotes poor, 2 denotes mediocre, and 3 denotesexcellent work. They are free to grade the papers any way they wish;however, their grades must replicate the excellence consensus we agreedto. That is to say, if we came up with a class-wide excellence consensusof 33%, then no more than one third of the homework assignments mayreceive DSU's highest grade, the 3. Often at this point, a studentwill raise her hand and ask a question such as, "Isn't ittheoretically possible that all the work in a given group can beexcellent?" In response, I answer, "Yes, of course,theoretically that's true--but it's just as likely that allthe work will be of poor quality; what we're looking for here areaverages. By the way, do you think all the restaurants around campus areexcellent?" The other rules for the exercise are as follows: students have theentire class period to grade the assignments, they grade everyassignment except their own, and they must agree on the evaluations. Ifthe "faculty" agrees on the grades and finishes by the end ofthe class period, those 1s, 2s, or 3s will be folded directly into thestudents' final averages as extra credit. I know assigning extracredit is a danger and I run the risk of fueling the very problem that Iam attempting to quell. However, I hold my nose and offer the extracredit because I think that for this exercise to be effective, there hasto be something at stake. Finally, I have found that the addition of oneto three extra credit points garnered late in the semester hasrelatively little effect on my class GPAs (the students who excel at Verb 1. excel at - be good at; "She shines at math"shine atexcel, surpass, stand out - distinguish oneself; "She excelled in math" this assignment are the same students who have been excelling allsemester). Poorly motivated students tend to give the assignment scantattention or even skip it altogether. After I've laid down the ground rules, we turn to grading theessays. Usually, I'll let the students argue among themselves onthe best method by which to grade the assignments. Then I will remindthem of the time limit and tell them that I have a method that willallow them to finish in time. Under this grading system, I read all theassignments aloud once without stopping or discussion. Then, I read themall again, but this time we pause and discuss the assignments'merits and shortcomings, then they vote by a show of hands a raising of hands to indicate judgment; as, the vote was taken by a show of hands.See also: Show . Since nomore than one third of the assignments can receive the 3, the"faculty" is limited in the number of 3's it canadminister--one third of the total number of assignments we have tograde. When digressions or unnecessary debate takes over, usually Iremind them of the time limit and they get back on track. Timeconstraints notwithstanding, I do allow--and to some extent evenencourage--a certain amount of discussion on what goes into making an"excellent" essay. Far from being an irrelevant digression,such conversation is a valuable aspect of the exercise. The first time I tried this assignment, one objective was to teachstudents how difficult it is to grade papers effectively and fairly.Instead, they have shown me some things. First, if there is agreement onthe excellence consensus, there tends to be agreement on individualgrades. It is almost as if students intuitively know what excellence is.Second, they seem to grapple with to enter into contest with, resolutely and courageously.See also: Grapple many of the same questions with whichI grapple. For example, invariably in��var��i��a��ble?adj.Not changing or subject to change; constant.in��vari��a��bil , one of the essays will varydramatically from the rest in appearance, e.g., it will be carefullytyped with right and left margins flush. I let the students see thewell-manicured essay, but I do not comment on it in any way. Though theymight try to put appearance aside and concentrate on content, invariablythe paper's appearance affects their opinion. At other times, these"faculty members" have grappled with assignments that confusequantity with quality: when I ask for a single short essay question,some ambitious, over-achieving student might write five or sixquestions. Like me, the students wonder whether they should base theirevaluation on the first answer only or admit the surplus quantity doesaffect their judgment. DSU's "faculty" also struggles tofairly evaluate assignments that are extremely creative or show atremendous effort but really do not fit the parameters of theassignment. These shared experiences, I think, help close the gap betweeninstructor and student--a gap that is only widened by some of the harshrhetoric in the grade inflation debate. However, closing that gap isonly one of the benefits of this assignment: obviously, students seethat for excellence to have any real meaning, not all work can beexcellent. For many students, this might be the first time they seetheir work in comparison to that of their colleagues. Perhaps theythought their work was excellent because they didn't know whatexcellent was. Also, students learn that appearance does matter andwriters who turn in torn, messy, and hastily written homeworkassignments suffer a loss of ethos. Other students, deprived of theopportunity to score extra credit points in the last week of classes,learn the importance of always doing their homework. Of course, there are limits to the benefits the students accruefrom this assignment; as I pointed out, the exercise itself can beslightly inflationary, and a small percentage of students doggedlyinsist their work deserves to be deemed excellent despite all evidenceto the contrary. Finally, I am unsure whether this increased awarenessof the perils of grade inflation lasts or whether it fades like othermoments of self-awareness. My grading practices--usually deemedmerciless, if not sadistic sa��dism?n.1. The deriving of sexual gratification or the tendency to derive sexual gratification from inflicting pain or emotional abuse on others.2. The deriving of pleasure, or the tendency to derive pleasure, from cruelty. , by the undergraduates in my charge--seemdownright tame in comparison to the grades handed down by the studentfaculty members of DSU. Under these conditions, student gradedassignments are almost always evaluated more harshly than thoseevaluated under normal conditions This article is about the philosophical argument; for normal conditions in the sense of standards see the corresponding articles, e.g. Standard conditions for temperature and pressure. by me. In all the time I've beenperforming this exercise, the "faculty" has never used itstotal allotment of 3's. For example, when I performed this exercisewith a group of students in a summer 2001 class at Louisiana StateUniversity, the class average was 1.6: a D plus. Additionally, from my perspective, I have no way of knowing whetherthe DSU exercise helps my ratings on the teacher evaluation form. I knowmy grades are a bit lower than my department's average and mystudent evaluations are often a bit higher than my department'saverage, but I don't know what effect, if any, the DSU exercise hasto do with that. I do know, however, that most students don't wantan unfair advantage over their colleagues, but they don't want tobe subject to an unfair disadvantage either. Like economic inflationaryspirals, grade inflation is perpetuated by perceptions which may oftenbe removed from reality. Students fear being evaluated by fairer, moredemanding standards, especially if they suspect those who are so judgedare few in number. This fear transfers to the instructors and furtherpressures the inflationary spiral, creating a sort of "culture offalse excellence" around campus. Common sense indicates that if teacher and student can unite tobegin to disassemble dis��as��sem��ble?v. dis��as��sem��bled, dis��as��sem��bling, dis��as��sem��blesv.tr.To take apart: disassemble a toaster.v.intr.1. this culture of false excellence, then instructorsmight feel more comfortable submitting more realistic evaluations oftheir students' work. However, correcting inflationary tendenciesin grading should not be done merely for its own sake or to make studentgrades conform to Verb 1. conform to - satisfy a condition or restriction; "Does this paper meet the requirements for the degree?"fit, meetcoordinate - be co-ordinated; "These activities coordinate well" an arbitrary construct such as a bell curve. Rather,realistic grading practices and high standards will motivate studentsand, ultimately, raise student performance levels. I have some tentative reason to suspect such changes have alreadybegun. Last semester I taught a very bright student who did a very poorjob on her final course paper. Although her work throughout the semesterwas very strong, her final course paper was poorly researched, casuallyargued, and haphazardly written; it was well below the quality of workshe was capable of performing. Sadly, I graded the final paperaccordingly and wrote some comments at the end. The class did the DSUexercise on the last day of the semester. Two days after final exams, Ireceived an e-mail message from the student. I opened the e-mail withtrepidation, assuming I was going to be lambasted for the grade and thecomments her course paper received. Although the e-mail was about herfinal paper, the tone and tenor of the message were a pleasant surprise.She wrote in part: Regarding the comments that you made, me too. I was not happy with the paper that I handed in. I didn't want to hand it in like that either. I wish that I had had more time to work on it and make it better. I started on it too late. I know, you warned us. I was really looking forward to writing that paper too ... it's a shame the way it turned out. I guess I'm just saying that those types of comments help me to remember that I need to do better work. It's not just a grade, it's getting something out of it. (Anonymous 2003) The student is right, of course; grades are just representations ofa much larger and much more complex idea. This concept is lost on manyof those who write on the subject, and much of the existing writing (andranting RantingSee also Anger, Exasperation, Irascibility.Boiler, Boanergesa zealous, raving preacher. [Br. Lit. ) on grade inflation has sprung from a conservative orreactionary political orientation--what the National Forum calls the"Just Say No" approach (Brookhart 1998, 3). Adherents to thisJust-Say-No school want instructors to stand firm and force studentsinto accepting a rigid bell curve of grading; therefore, it is nosurprise that those in this school rely on (literally) belligerentlanguage. I wonder, wouldn't it be more effective to make thesechildren of Lake Wobegone our allies rather than our conquered subjects? Appendix A: Lesson Plan--Distention State University Objectives: To give students a clearer idea of how their workcompares to that of their peers, to combat the effects of gradeinflation, and to bridge the gap between instructor and students. Before Class: During the class meeting preceding the exercise,assign a simple, short homework assignment; e.g., compose one or twosample final exam questions, compose a new, more relevant universitymotto, etc. Bring to Class: pocket calculator (computer) pocket calculator - A small battery-powered digital electronic device for performing simple arithmetic operations on data input on a keypad and outputting the result (usually a single number) to a simple LCD or other display. , paper, and pen Lesson Plan: 1. Develop a class-wide consensus on the relative frequency of"excellent," "mediocre," and "poor"quality substances, products, and practices. Ask the students to writedown their answers to a series of questions: a. What percentage of the movies released every year would you deemexcellent? Mediocre? Poor? b. In your favorite musical genre, what percentage of the CD'sreleased every year is excellent? Mediocre? Poor? c. What percentage of the pizza parlors around campus sellsexcellent pizza? Mediocre? Poor? d. What percentage of the teachers you have had would you rate asexcellent? Mediocre? Poor? e. What percentage of the drivers around campus do you thinkpossess excellent driving skills? Mediocre? Poor? f. Of the romantic partners you have had, what percentage would youdeem excellent? Mediocre? Poor? g. Students tally results. Then, they try to come up with aclass-wide agreement on what percentage of any given item is excellent,mediocre, or poor. 2. Tell students that for one class period we're going to beat a mythical place Noun 1. mythical place - a place that exists only in imagination; a place said to exist in fictional or religious writingsfictitious place, imaginary place called "Distention State University." a. At "Distention State University" everyone getspromotions: the instructor becomes "Chancellor" and thestudents become "faculty." The "Chancellor" givesthe "faculty" one task: to apply the excellence consensus tothe homework assignments collected earlier. 3. Tell students you would like them to apply that agreed-uponstandard to the homework assignments--for if, for example, only 33% ofthe pizza parlors around campus can be deemed excellent, isn't itfoolish to assume a larger percentage of the homework assignments may bedeemed excellent? a. 3 is the highest grade, 2 indicates acceptable work, and 1indicates poor-quality work. b. As compensation for their work as faculty at DSU, they willreceive 1, 2, or 3 extra credit points folded directly into their finalaverages. 4. Tell students that they can grade the assignments any way theychoose, but if they do not finish by the end of the class period, or ifthey cannot agree on all the evaluations, no one will receive the extracredit bonus points. a. Let the students attempt to come up with their own system. b. After some time has passed, step in with a suggestion as to howto finish the exercise before class time ends. One way to finish within50 minutes is for you to read the assignments aloud once withoutstopping and then read them again allowing for student comments. Ask thestudents to vote a grade (1, 2, or 3) by show of hands. c. Record the votes. After class, add them to grade book. Notes (1) A version of this essay then titled "(Not So?) StrangeBedfellows: Enlisting Students' Help in the Fight Against GradeInflation" was presented at the panel "'But I Always GotA's Until Now': Helping Students Overcome the Effects of GradeInflation" at the 2001 NEMLA NEMLA Northeast Modern Language Association conference in Toronto, Ontario. Thepanel was organized by Susan R. Bobby of Wesley College There are a number of entries for educational institutions named "Wesley College." Wesley College, Auckland - New Zealand Wesley College, Bristol - United Kingdom Wesley College, Colombo - Sri Lanka Wesley College (Delaware) - USA and featuredpapers by Marlisa Santos of Nova Southeastern University and Phillip D.Collington of Niagara University. I am grateful to the panel'sorganizer, my fellow participants, and those in attendance for theirgenerous help and insightful comments. (2) The appellation ap��pel��la��tion?n.1. A name, title, or designation.2. A protected name under which a wine may be sold, indicating that the grapes used are of a specific kind from a specific district.3. The act of naming. "Children of Lake Wobegone" comesfrom Garrison Keillor's popular "News from Lake Wobegone"segment on his nationally syndicated Prairie Home Companion radioprogram. Keillor ends each "News" segment with the valediction"... that's the news from Lake Wobegone, where all the womenare strong, the men are good looking, and all of the children are wellabove average." To many, declining academic standards have turnedus into a society where indeed all of our children are well aboveaverage. (3) In an article in Daedalus, John F. Jennings notes that true"grade inflation" would be marked by students receiving aseries of higher and higher grades: e.g., A plus, A double-plus, Atriple-plus, etc. What we actually face is "gradecompression"; students' grades are "bunched up" atthe top of the scale (1995, 131). Using a similar progression of logic,Richard Kamber and Mary Briggs preferred the term "gradeconflation (database) conflation - Combining or blending of two or more versions of a text; confusion or mixing up. Conflation algorithms are used in databases. " while writing on the subject in The Chronicle of HigherEducation (2002). (4) The dangers inherent in such a trend should be obvious: forexample, who, we might ask, is in charge of seeing to it that Mongo MongoAny of several peoples living in the African equatorial forest. 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"The Phenomenon of Grade Inflationin Higher Education." National Forum, 79:38. Wolfe, Alan. 2001. "Professors Are Unconvincing in ShieldingTheir Interests." Chronicle of Higher Education, 2 March, 20. Mark King is a doctoral candidate in English literature English literature,literature written in English since c.1450 by the inhabitants of the British Isles; it was during the 15th cent. that the English language acquired much of its modern form. atLouisiana State University in Baton Rouge, where he teachesundergraduate writing and literature courses.