Grade Inflation at Yale

[Ruralguy]

Although we get a number of student (and parental) complaints, most are tied to "unfair" elements of the course, and frankly, some of the complaints are justified. Even so, very few end in even an informal grade change complaint, and almost none lead to a formal grade change. Although, over the years, I find that F's have become more rare simply because a student getting an F in my course is very likely to be getting one in another and in another. Nowadays, these students withdraw early, seek mental health intervention, get help from academic counselors, etc. So, I am not saying none get an F or that none deserve it, but there are a number of administrative moves beyond post facto grade complaints that can decrease the total number of failing grades.

[Anselm]

Just for the sake of discussion, some training programs have all graduates at 100% test scores.  One example would be those taking a test to be a airplane pilot.  I have been told that you have to know everything on the written and flying test.  Wrong answers are not acceptable.

[Wahoo Redux]

I would just be curious to see what qualifies as C level work in some of these courses. It's one type of problem is  the C at Yale is an A at SW Rural State U. But my guess is that's not really the case.

If you read the comments section of the NYTimes article, many Ivy profs write in about how no one ever fails because of how the admins intervene. At least for the well connected students.

This is true of non-Ivy institutions as well. I've had students complain to the dean about the grading policies (determined by the department) the number of assignments (again determined by the department), not being availble on weekends for an immediate zoom appointment, not being available after the end of the semester, and a host of other issues. Dean doesn't read the emails, but instead wants me/the department to handle the complaints immediately. I've also had students wanting higher grades because they "worked so hard", they had to "concentrate on their majors", and similar excuses.

You might recall that pre-med students at NYU complained about a highly-regarded professor, claiming that the course was too difficult resulting in the non-renewal of the professor's contract.

I'm not sure how exactly this relates to the subject-at-hand, but my old (my wife's current) foundering university hired Gray Associates (and my God what a bunch of corporate cretins) to do program evaluation.  Part of the evaluation was "successful" professors/instructors who taught the most "A" and "B" students, and the less "successful" profs/instructors who taught the "C," "D," and "F" students.  They showed it to us in a chart with percentages and the teachers' names. 

[Anselm]

I would just be curious to see what qualifies as C level work in some of these courses. It's one type of problem is  the C at Yale is an A at SW Rural State U. But my guess is that's not really the case.

If you read the comments section of the NYTimes article, many Ivy profs write in about how no one ever fails because of how the admins intervene. At least for the well connected students.

This is true of non-Ivy institutions as well. I've had students complain to the dean about the grading policies (determined by the department) the number of assignments (again determined by the department), not being availble on weekends for an immediate zoom appointment, not being available after the end of the semester, and a host of other issues. Dean doesn't read the emails, but instead wants me/the department to handle the complaints immediately. I've also had students wanting higher grades because they "worked so hard", they had to "concentrate on their majors", and similar excuses.

You might recall that pre-med students at NYU complained about a highly-regarded professor, claiming that the course was too difficult resulting in the non-renewal of the professor's contract.

I'm not sure how exactly this relates to the subject-at-hand, but my old (my wife's current) foundering university hired Gray Associates (and my God what a bunch of corporate cretins) to do program evaluation.  Part of the evaluation was "successful" professors/instructors who taught the most "A" and "B" students, and the less "successful" profs/instructors who taught the "C," "D," and "F" students.  They showed it to us in a chart with percentages and the teachers' names. 

If that happens here then I have a prepared speech:

Well--well look. I already told you: I deal with the god damn customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?

[Sun_Worshiper]

I've never had an admin intervene to change a student's grade or heard of such a thing at my university. Yet grade inflation is pretty common in my department, even without these interventions. I think that the shift to grading rubrics (which the admins do like, although do not impose) has led faculty to reward box checking instead of rewarding truly exceptional work. Interestingly, a past dean was so disturbed by the grade inflation that they instituted a rule that no more than 50% of students in any class could earn an A or A-. It was not a great solution and the rule did not last, but it goes to show that at least some admins are concerned about the reputational impacts of having even weak students "earning" high grades.

[eigen]

Just for the sake of discussion, some training programs have all graduates at 100% test scores.  One example would be those taking a test to be a airplane pilot.  I have been told that you have to know everything on the written and flying test.  Wrong answers are not acceptable.

This does bring up some interesting discussion as to whether grades are absolute or relative. For example, is there a set bar, and the goal is to get as many students to and over it as possible?

Or should you creep the bar up so only a certain portion pass it?

In my field there are standardized exams that are updated regularly for each major content area, and many departments use those as either final exams or use them for seniors before graduation to benchmark performance over time.