Hello All, I think its possible we are trying to enforce variance that does not exist among students. All or most of the students can actually have a mastery of the material in the courses and deserve A's. This is theoretically possible and likely happens at a University like Harvard. I have also observed this in medical school. The students who finally get in are studying and test-taking machines. They work extremely hard and actually know the material. Instead of making tests that accurately measure this, they are given horribly designed test items that have ambiguous multiple choice options and K-type questions etc. The variance on the test that forces the grades into a normal curve has nothing to do with the course content. The variance is attributable to test taking skill. Most of them should get A's and we need to live with it. Why is it so important to enforce a bell curve?
The Flynn effect is not applicable since grades are not normed. The norms of an IQ test are updated. The content may change but this has nothing to do with the Flynn effect. I am not convinced of the Flynn effect anyway. It was discovered essentially by accident and we never had a sufficient longitudinal study. It should be called the Flynn suggestion. Can you imagine how bad the grading would be if we graded by norms and only assigned a standard score? We could end up failing students because they performed less than peers even when they mastered the course. Mike Williams Drexel University --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected]. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=31045 or send a blank email to leave-31045-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
