Mon 26 Apr 2004
Although Oren Cass ‘05 makes this point in the context of a discussion of tips, I think that it is important independent of that debate.
Stop giving out As. I have little sympathy for a faculty complaining about rushed-through papers when they award those papers good grades. The GPA of a Williams student has been steadily rising. Either the work we’re doing is still OK, or faculty are giving out good grades for bad work. Stop doing that. The worst that will happen is people unserious about working hard will not take your class (which is what Professor Crane wants, isn’t it?).
If the rise of tutorials and the housing lottery are two of the most important changes for the best at Williams over the last 20 years, then surely grade inflation has been one of worst influences. I think that the situation may have actually gotten better, or at least stabilized, in the last few years. Much of the thanks for this goes, I hear, to the unsung work of College Registrar Charles Toomajian, forcing faculty to confront the problem.
But, from Cass’s comment, a lot more should be done. I can understand why an untenured member of the faculty might hesitate to center her grading curve around a B. I have never heard a good justification for senior faculty refusing to do so.
April 27th, 2004 at 9:45 am
Ironically, tutorials and grade inflation go hand in hand. In two of the three tutorials I took, it was explicitly stated that “The assumption is that you will work hard. I’ll give everyone A’s so that you feel free to take chances.”
Not surprisingly, a few people felt free to shirk their duties and created a PAINFUL tutorial. In fact, one partner copied and pasted the same two paragraphs into three different papers.
Isolated incidents to be sure. The vast majority of students work very hard in tutorials because there is nowhere to hide if you slack off. I have nothing but good things to say about tutorials. It offers an almost unique chance to thoroughly explore and challenge intellectual arguments. I think it is great that the college expanded the program.
However, I would suspect that the average grade in tutorials is awfully close to an A.