Herman --
I liked your last sentence indicating that MASTERY IS IMPORTANT!!
" I do not use a linear grading method; fortunately, early in my
teaching, I had a student put it all together on the final."
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Joe
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----- Original Message -----
From: Herman Rubin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 1999 7:23 AM
Subject: Re: grading on the curve
| In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
| dennis roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
| >this discussion is interesting ...
|
| >there seems to be TWO general kinds of "grading" on the curve ... it would
| >be interesting to try to "estimate" how frequently each happens ...
|
| >1. LOWERing cutoffs ... thus, INcreasing the #s of those getting various
| >higher grades
|
| >2. making cutoffs such that the distribution of GRADES resembles a normal
| >distribution
|
| >i assume that #1 occurs much more frequently and, from my perspective,
| >there is NO good rationale for doing #2 ... unless one assumes that ability
| >within a class is normally distributed AND ... and far more crucial ...
| >that achievement SHOULD resemble the distribution of ability ...
|
| Something like #2 occurs far too often. But either one of these
| defeats the value of a grade in indicating anything about what
| the student has accomplished.
|
| NOTHING is normally distributed, so grades should not be.
|
| Also, classes are not equal; even different sections of the same
| course in the same term are not equal. Trying a different approach
| to teaching may well change the distribution of the amount of
| knowledge, and thus should change the distribution of grades.
|
| Only absolute grading is a meaningful assessment of what the
| student has accomplished. Relative grading almost forces
| levels to go down. The American undergraduate grades in the
| strong mathematics courses preparing for graduate work are
| essentially meaningless at this time.
|
| >in any case ... instructors are suppose to give students some reasonable
| >description of the grading system used ... at the BEginning of a course ...
| >which i assume would include some facimile of a grading scale ... or what
| >one has to do to earn certain grades ... and in this context, i would think
| >that anyone who might 'consider" RAISING cutoffs so that FEWER students get
| >higher grades ... would be challenged from students .. as this appears to
| >border on unethical practice ...
|
| One is not required to go that far. Saying that you will give
| your best assessment of what the student knows and can do, based
| on scores given on various items, meets the legal requirements.
| I do not use a linear grading method; fortunately, early in my
| teaching, I had a student put it all together on the final.
|
|
| >At 02:32 PM 12/22/99 -0500, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
| >> I never, as a teacher, used any curving
| >>procedure to lower students grades!
| --
| This address is for information only. I do not claim that these views
| are those of the Statistics Department or of Purdue University.
| Herman Rubin, Dept. of Statistics, Purdue Univ., West Lafayette IN47907-1399
| [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (765)494-6054 FAX: (765)494-0558
|
