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I hadn't heard that before, but I like that way of thinking about it. It reminds me a bit of Goodhart's Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a
by twentythree 10y ago
I hadn't heard that before, but I like that way of thinking about it. It reminds me a bit of Goodhart's Law: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure". Good grades might be a good measure of a student's performance, but when we focus on optimizing the grades themselves, they become less useful as a metric.
When I was in high school, there were some students who wouldn't take a class if it wasn't weighted, because it would bring down their overall GPA; even if it was an interest of theirs, they were worried that the effect on their class rank would hurt their college admissions chances.
- woodpanel 10y agoI wonder how much of that "grade performance inflation" isn't due to changed externals but just due to the ever built-in ways of inter-generational parenting-evolution: It doesn't matter that you are the only sibling graduating, what matters more is that once you've gone PHD you'll (openly/subconciously) put your expectations on display for your kids to see. As a college-grad, how likely would you tolerate ("welcome"), your kids leaving education with a high school diploma?
- eanzenberg 10y agoAs a phd, I'd be perfectly fine with my kid(s) finishing with a HS diploma. Why? Well 1st, it would be a lot cheaper for us! 2nd, I wouldn't at all be worried as long as the internal drive is there to further their own education. A lot of people have the idea that once formal education stops the need to learn ceases. In fact, the need to learn should never cease because progress can always be found. What changes is that once formal education stops, learning becomes self-driven. So whether a person has a HS diploma or a phd is irrelevant if their internal drive to progress has stopped.