Albert,
What you decide to do with your "curve or don't curve" grading
decision depends in part on what you have done in the past and what your
colleagues are doing in similar courses. "Fair" grading requires some
consistency in standards--from course to course and semester to
semester. So if 67% was a D last semester, then it should still be a D
this semester regardless of where the class average is (assuming no
significant change in student mix, course materials or testing procedure).
Another way to look at this is to consider the basis for your
grading standards. If your school requires a grading standard where 90%
or better equals an A, 80-89% equals B, etc., then you probably don't
have a good defense for your grading. Depending upon how hard your test
happened to be, how well you prepared your students, whether test review
materials were provided, and other factors, 70% could be a good
performance or a very poor performance. By this reasoning, your grade
cutpoints should be based in part on these "other factors" and not
solely on some simplistic notion that the percentage correct score
represents the percentage of course content understood by the student.
So lighten up if you constructed a challenging test; get more strict if
you provided review materials covering most of the test content
(essentially providing the test questions in advance).
In my courses, I try to balance the grade standards for different
components of my courses so that the resulting distribution of course
grades roughly matches the distribution of grades in my college
(matching to lower-division or upper-division grade distribution as
appropriate). Of course, when I teach a nontraditional course (e.g., an
experiential class devoted to hands-on exercises and writing as opposed
to memory-based testing) I have to give thought to a rational departure
from the prevailing grade distribution. This seems to work for me and is
viewed as fair by my students.
Whether you chose to curve your grading or not is probably less
important than the reasons you provide for your decision. Good luck with
this one.
--Dave
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
>
> Dear Colleagues:
>
> I teach at the community college, and this semester my teaching load
> is four courses. Today, I administered the second exam in all of my
> courses and just scored each of them. The average for each class is
> as follows
>
> Class 1- N=27 70% average raw score
> Class 2- N=31 66% average raw score
> Class 3- N=29 67% average raw score
> Class 4- N=30 67% average raw score
>
> The exam consisted of 50 multiple choice items and scored on a 100%
> scale. My colleagues at my campus are divided, some say that they
> deserve the score they get, others will curve the exam scores. In
> fact several of my students asked if I would curve even before I
> handed out the answer forms and exam booklets.
>
> Each semester I do have a handful of students who do not test very
> well, however this semester I seem to have more of those that do not
> test well or are not studying adequately for my exam. In each
> class three students scored 90% or higher
>
> My question is as follows
>
> At what point does one scale or curve the results and are there any
> specific methods of doing so?
>
> Thanks
>
> Albert Bramante
> Department of Psychology/Sociology
> Union County College
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
>
>
>
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--
--
___________________________________________________________________
David E. Campbell, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED]
<mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Department of Psychology Phone: 707-826-3721
Humboldt State University FAX: 707-826-4993
Arcata, CA 95521-8299 www.humboldt.edu/~campbell/psyc.htm
<http://www.humboldt.edu/%7Ecampbell/psyc.htm>
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