Grade inflation Gone Wild - sTUarTrojsTaCzer

A bout six years ago, I was sitting in the student union of a small liberal arts college when I saw a graph on the cover of the student newspaper that showed the history of grades given at that institution in the past 30 years.

Grades were up. Way up.

I am a scientist by training and I love numbers. So when I looked at that graph, I wondered, How many colleges and universities have
data like this that I can find? The answer is that a lot of schools have data like this hidden somewhere. Back then, I found more than 80 colleges and universities with data on grades, mostly by poking around the Web. Then I created a website (gradeinflation.com) so that others could find this data. I learned that grades started to shoot up nationwide in the 1960s, levelled off in the 1970s, and then started rising again in the 1980s. Private schools had much higher grades than public schools, but virtually everyone was experiencing grade inflation.

What about today?

Grades continue to go up regardless of the quality of education. At a time when many are raising questions about the quality of U.S. higher education, the average GPA at public schools is 3.0, with many flagship state schools having average GPAs higher than 3.2. At a private college, the average is now 3.3. At some schools, it tops 3.5 and even 3.6. A is average at those schools! At elite Brown University, two-thirds of all letter grades given are now A's.

These changes in grading have had a profound influence on college life and learning. When students walk into a classroom knowing that they can go through the motions and get a B+ or better, that's what they tend to do, give minimal effort. Our college classrooms are filled with students who do not prepare for class. Many studies less than 10 hours a week that's less than half the hours they spent studying 40 years ago. Paradoxically, students are spending more and more money on an education that seems to deliver less and less content.
With so few hours filled with learning, boredom sets in and students have to find something to pass the time. Instead of learning, they drink. A recent survey of more than 30,000 first-year students across the country showed that nearly half were spending more hours drinking than they were studying. If we continue along this path, well end up with a generation of poorly educated college graduates who have used their four years principally to develop an addiction to alcohol.

Many say that grade inflation is a complicated issue with no easy fix. But there are solutions. At about the same time that I started to collect data on rising grades, Princeton University began to do something about its grade-inflation problem. Its guidelines have the effect of now limiting A's on average to 35 per cent of students in a class. Those guidelines have worked. Grades are going back down at Princeton and academic rigour is making a comeback. A similar successful effort has taken place at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. And through a concerted effort on the part of faculty and leadership, grades at Reed College in Oregon have stayed essentially constant for 20 years.

Princeton, Wellesley, and Reed provide evidence that the effort to keep grade inflation in check is not impossible. This effort takes two major steps. First, school officials must admit that there is a problem. Then they must implement policies or guidelines that truly restore excellence.

I asked Dean Nancy Malkiel at Princeton why so few schools seem to be following Princeton's lead. Because its hard work, she answered. Because you have to persuade the faculty that its important to do the work.

Making a switch will take hard work, but the effort is worthwhile. The alternative is a student body that barely studies and drinks out of boredom. That's not acceptable. Colleges and universities must roll up their sleeves, bring down inflated grades, and encourage real learning. It's not an impossible task. There are successful examples that can be followed. I am looking forward to the day when we can return to being proud of the education that our nation's colleges and universities provide.

Analyze Stuart Rojstaczer's argument in Grade Inflation Gone Wild, addressing the following questions:
What evidence does Rojstaczer use to indicate that there is a problem?
How would you characterize this evidence (for example, scientific, anecdotal), and to what extent are you persuaded by the evidence he provides to suggest that grade inflation has a profound effect on life and learning?
To what extent does he persuade you that a change in policy is
necessary or that such a change would make a difference?

goldporcupine700

Case Study

Skolnikland is in Eastern Africa, with a population of 30 million people. The country has a plains region, a hill region, and a region with high mountains. It has a number of ecosystems. The plains are dry for much of the year, there is some rainforest, and the rest of the country includes both hills and mountains. There are two seasons of heavy rainfall.

The citizens come from several ethnic groups that tend to live in their own regions and speak different languages. The ethnic groups largely follow one of three different religions. The large cities are mixed ethnically. One ethnic group is economically and socially very dominant. The people from this group live in the capital and most of the large cities. The national language is the language of this dominant ethnic group.

According to World Bank criteria, Skolnikland is among the poorest countries in the world. The economy has been growing at about 4% per year on average over the last decade, but the economy had very slow economic growth in the decades prior to that. The richest 10% of the population controls 80% of the national income.

About 80% of the people live in rural areas and 20% in urban areas. The number of people living in urban areas has been growing recently at an increasing pace. Most people earn their livelihood in agriculture but there is an increasing garment manufacturing industry in the two largest cities. There are also a number of mining industries. In addition, other export industries are beginning to grow, mostly focused on the export of commodities to China.

The total fertility rate is about 4.5 but it has been declining slowly over the last two decades, from over 6. There is an almost equal number of men and women in the population. Infant mortality is about 90 per 1,000 live births. Maternal mortality is about 500 per 100,000 live births. Thirty-five percent of the children are underweight for age.

The adult literacy rate is about 40%. The educational enrollment rate, especially for girls at the primary and secondary levels, has been growing slowly, but steadily. Most recently, this rate has been growing at an increasing pace and about 75% of the girls now attend school regularly, although many of them are of very low quality.

Only about 50% of citizens have access to safe water. Only about 30% have access to sanitary disposal of human waste.

HIV prevalence is 7% of the adult population. The number of new HIV cases annually has begun to plateau. About half of the people eligible for treatment for HIV are on treatment. Malaria is rampant in the plains.

Investments in the road system have been growing at a solid pace in the last decade and the use of private automobiles has begun recently to increase more rapidly.

Skolnikland has a pluralistic health system that is made up of public and private institutions, publicly financed providers, licensed private providers, unlicensed medical practitioners, and traditional healers. There is no health insurance, except for some free services for the poor in the few publicly financed hospitals, which the better off people do not attend. The health system is not very effective or efficient and is generally of low quality. The HIV, TB, and malaria programs are not effective or efficient and they are just beginning to adopt paradigms for services that follow global best practices.

QUESTION 26

What is a DALY?

Refer Case Study from question 1 to answer this question.

A. An indicator that compares the burden of deaths across the population of different countries.

B. A composite health gap indicator that measures the amount of health and disability-free life that is lost because of disease, injury, and premature death.

C. A WHO indicator used to summarize the expected number of years to be lived in good health.

QUESTION 27

What is an example of a conditional cash transfer that you can use to improve child health?

Refer Case Study from question 1 to answer this question.

A. Provide tax breaks to families with children.

B. Give money to mothers whose children received a full course of vaccination.

C. Pay higher fees to vaccination programs with better outcomes.

QUESTION 28

What usually takes place during the demographic transition?

Refer Case Study from question 1 to answer this question.

A. Fertility falls before mortality falls

B. Mortality falls and then fertility falls

C. Mortality and fertility fall at the same time

QUESTION 29

Which force is likely to have the greatest direct impact on epidemiological change in the medium and long terms on today's middle-income countries?

Refer Case Study from question 1 to answer this question.

A. Population growth

B. Population aging

C. Urbanization

QUESTION 30

Which is the most accurate statement about the distribution of age at death in Niger (a very low income country) and Norway (a very high income country) today?

Refer Case Study from question 1 to answer this question.

A. About 5% of the deaths in Niger are among those under 15, while the overwhelming majority of deaths in Norway are among those over 65.

B. About 30% of the deaths in Niger are among those under 15, while the overwhelming majority of deaths in Norway are among those over 65.

C. The overwhelming majority of deaths in both countries occur among people aged 65 and over.