Grade Inflation Jordan Ellenberg Summary

In the article “Don’t Worry about Grade Inflation” by Jordan Ellenberg, it is stated that it doesn’t matter whether the grades used are A, A-, B+, B and B- or A, B, C, D and F. The ability to tell students apart based on either of these grade systems would be the same, according to this system. This idea stem from something known as a norm-referenced system. One semi-version of this seen in college classes is the normalization of exam grades onto a bell curve, manipulating the numbers to make the average a 75%. When the average is lower than the professor or the college feels it should be, there is pressure to increase it to a certain standard. It is not so common for a professor to lower the average for a test, practically unheard of at OU. …show more content…
It would be best if society as a whole reverted back to giving absolute grades in the courses taken by students. It simply undermines the purpose of college, a time when you are supposed to be learning and training for your future field of work. If you are not good at something, it is better to discover that when you are in college, not afterward when you are depending on your ability to do that specific job in order to make a living. This grade inflation does have a major effect. I suppose that eventually A’s will be the average performance by students in all classes and that at that point, we will be using even smaller ranges of numbers to distinguish between the work of students. But, not all students that manage a 90% average in their college chemistry classes understand the concepts and facts well enough that they are equipped to be chemists. This is where criterion-referenced testing has the …show more content…
There are some classes that have so called tough professors that do not adjust the average on their tests. These professors are the ones giving a much more realistic idea of how well a student can expect to do in their fields based on how much they know and how much effort they are willing to put forth. These testing methods that are criterion-referenced are what should be used. If the average on a class is poor, then perhaps a new learning technique should be put in place by the students or a new teaching method instilled by the professor. It is difficult to say how the standards would be set, as this would vary from course to course. A subject matter expert (non-professor) could review the course material and determine what a student should be expected to understand and infer and base the standards on