I agree with Dennis. In fact, I show a stem-and-leaf display on an overhead projector -- when I have a class of more than about 15 students. With a smaller class, they could figure out which student had which score. I think it shows the value of graphing data and reinforces an understanding of one kind of graph they have to learn in my class. Plus, after collecting each quiz I immediately hand out a copy of the key, so that they can learn from their mistakes while the quiz is fresh in mind. By the time they see the stem-and-leaf, it's not much of a surprise how they did.
-----Original Message----- From: Dennis Roberts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Stan Brown <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sat, 18 Jan 2003 16:25:20 -0500 Subject: Re: Displaying grades anonymously (Re: another ethical after every test ... i update my gradebook and, with last 4 digits of student # ... put these on my door in addition, i put the desc stats and, a simple frequency tally i see nothing wrong with this AND, it is the only efficient way to communicate to the students about their scores and how the class did ... the operative here is that no one person knows what any other person does of course, it is not uncommon for several students (maybe friends) to stop by the "door" at the same time ... and, they share with each other ... for good or for bad ... how they did if you have a 50 item test ... and, the mean is say 38 ... and someone gets a 27 ... THEY know they did poorly and ... THEY usually don't feel that good about it but, i don't see how displaying on my door a simple frequency distribution adds to that feeling since many instructors (i am not one of them) grade based on your position within the distribution ... then it seems reasonable to put a frequency distribution on display SOMEplace so students have a better idea of just exactly where they stand ... for good or for bad finally, the more information you can show to the class about the performance on the test ... the better they are able to put all scores into some perspective ... i don't see why we should NOT do this it is certainly not unethical ... it would be if full student identifiers were displayed but ... that is not the case At 01:20 PM 1/18/03 -0500, Stan Brown wrote: >Arthur J. Kendall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in sci.stat.edu: > >Is it unethical to display a frequency count and percentages of the > >grades for a course (without any names or identifiability) since someone > >might feel badly about where they stand in the class? > >I'm not sure why you label his a "troll". It seems like a legitimate >question to me. > >After most quizzes, I show the class the median and mean. I have >sometimes thought about displaying the further information mentioned >above, but have desisted exactly because I'm concerned about hurt >feelings. > >I'd like to hear some comments from others on this. > >-- >Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Cortland County, New York, USA > http://OakRoadSystems.com/ >"You find yourself amusing, Blackadder." >"I try not to fly in the face of public opinion." >. >. >================================================================= >Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the >problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: >. http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . >================================================================= . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . ================================================================= . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
