9 ms·

Is it possible that grade inflation has grown in pace to the expanding web of knowledge?

losteric 8y ago
Grade inflation refers to the phenomena of getting an "A" despite having what used to be a "B" or "C" level of knowledge. So, it's possible there's an incidental correlation but there's no causation if the phenomena is real. If you've seen how the average kid uses the internet, it's a rather laughable suggestion... there is little overlap between social media entertainment sites and the web of knowledge. The biggest contributor to higher grades are the book summary and answer-key sharing sites.
- xstartup 8y ago
  Grade inflation refers to the phenomena of getting an "A" despite having what used to be a "B" or "C" level of knowledge. If an institution gives grade A based on some objective criteria and students getting the grade C turn out to be successful then methodology of the institution will be considered flawed by the vast majority. Soon, the institution will lose its relevance. If the institutions have to stay relevant, they'll have to make sure the grades are correlated to successful people in some way even if it means handing out grade A to any student!
  - 394549 8y ago
    >> Grade inflation refers to the phenomena of getting an "A" despite having what used to be a "B" or "C" level of knowledge. > If an institution gives grade A based on some objective criteria and students getting the grade C turn out to be successful business people then methodology of the institution will be considered flawed by the vast majority. Soon, the institution will lose its relevance. What you describe is grade inflation. Grades aren't meant to be predictors of career success, they're meant to be indicators of past academic performance. My understanding is that once upon a time, a "C" grade meant your work was average or typical, which was perfectly respectable. An "A" or "B" mean your academic work was above the norm or outstanding. People could get C's and go on to have successful, non-academic careers (such as in business) with little comment. With grade inflation, when "average" is an A or B, it's much harder to distinguish the truly academically talented based on their grades, since they're grouped into the same category as average performers.
    - ballenf 8y ago
      > Grades aren't meant to be predictors of career success, they're meant to be indicators of past academic performance. Isn't it both? If we had figured out the perfect academic program for all time, then it could be just a reflection of performance compared to all prior students in the program. Since we haven't, we update the programs and that might mean some aspects become easier and some harder. Or maybe overall easier, if career demands have generally gone down (which, imo, is a much more interesting discussion than whether an 'A' is really an 'A').
  - lotsofpulp 8y ago
    I don't see what being a successful business person would have to do with learning the material in a course, such as calculus or physics.
  - dsajames 8y ago
    That's not what happens. If A meant success at X, like running a mile in X time meant you could outrun a bear, no matter the percentage of people, it would be great. What's happened is parents pressured schools to get their kids A's to get into college, then colleges set the minimum bar at A+ instead of A, then at A+ and a random selection of thousands of students, all with A+'s. We are at the point where a single A- will drop you 50 slots in class rank. This is like judging the difference between Olympic sprinters instead of seeing the real spread among students.
    - tormeh 8y ago
      That's why I think the universities should be holding high school exams. More generally, students/pupils should be judged by the institutions they're about to enter, rather than the ones they're leaving.
  - tormeh 8y ago
    Grading guidelines differ. Where I went, C was considered a good grade - more or less defined as the average among the students who didn't fail. Even an E means you got at least 40% of the points on the test.
  - garryc01304 8y ago
    Garry cole GREETINGS EVERYONE, are you looking for a LEGIT and Trustworthy HACKERS with 100% Guarantee and you want to get your job done urgently withing one Hour or you are face with delay and unnecessary excuses and error on your job?. Then Worry no more because easyhackingguru@gmail.com are the Best Bet in any hacking Services. They are ready to render and attend to your job with swift response and No delay at all. Their services are outlined as follows: . LONG TIME LOAN GIVING . PROFESSIONAL in SCHOOL GRADE hanging . WHATSAPP Hack . FACBOOK hack . PROFESSIONAL in any BANK ACCOUNTS TRANSFER . TWITTERS hack . EMAIL,YAHOOMAIL and HOTMAIL ACCOUNTS hack . WEBSITE CRASHED hack . SERVER CRASHED hack . SALES OF SPYWARE and KEYLOGGER SOFTWARE . RETRIVAL OF LOST FILES and DOCUMENTS . ERASE and EXPUNGE of CRIMINAL RECORDS . DATABASE hack . SALES of ATM CARDS in WHITE . SKYPE hack . PAYPAL hack . DROPBOX ACCOUNT hack and Lots more.......... CONTACT: their services at easyhackingguru@gmail.com and you will be glad you did whatsApp contact- +12168104481
- lordCarbonFiber 8y ago
  This is so ignorant to the advancements in pedagogy over the past several decades as to be insulting. Part of, if maybe not the biggest or only factor, the increase in grades is we are just hugely better at teaching than we were 30 or 40 years ago. Teaching for mastery, the idea of reversing the role of homework vs tests (in terms of relative difficulty and exposure to new information) to better facilitate self learning, formalized programs to act as tutoring and support systems, all of these are increasing student performance by design. Not only that but as far as higher education goes how are you even trying to compare to "what used to be B or C knowledge"? What in the 70s was graduate level transistor research is basic undergrad course studies, for example. Introduction to programming would have been on punch cards in the 80s, today's students are using python. Are you surprised that they do better given the advances in tooling? The "kids these days" argument is so, so tired and honestly every time I see it Im not surprised so many of the old guard (rich off of just being in the industry during the dot com boom) think they're being targeted for "age discrimination".
  - madengr 8y ago
    I used that argument back in 4th grade to my parents: “Math is harder for me since there have been more advancements since you were kids”. I can only speak for electrical engineering, but the basics have not changed in 100 years. Crack open a text book from 100 years ago and you’ll find the same control theory, circuit analysis, electromagnetics, etc. The difference may be vacuum tubes vs. transistors, but the analysis is them same. Many things are a lot easier to do now with computers, and I’ll wager a student of 100 years ago had better analytical skills. It’s not just grade inflation either, but degree inflation. The PhD is the new MS, etc down the line.
    - lordCarbonFiber 8y ago
      That's patently false, and your example is a straw man. Sure your grade school arithmetic hasn't increased much, but I'd assure you university maths have. As far as EE goes, I mean sure macro-electronic theory is pretty much the same, but micro-electronics didn't even exist 100 years ago. This is now a standard required class. Digital signal processing again, didn't even exist 100 years ago, now we teach it to sophomores. The foundations that were the same have persisted and the field has done nothing but expand; this trend is replicated across most disciplines. The data doesn't support your assessment of declining analytical skills. The ability for abstract thought has been monotonically increasing for the past 100 years.[0] I understand the appeal, oh kids these days aren't disrupting anything, my job is safe. The issue is, there's not much data to support the platitude. Globalization means you're competing with billions more people, education achievement has to increase to match; or be left behind. https://www.ted.com/talks/james_flynn_why_our_iq_levels_are_higher_than_our_grandparents https://www.ted.com/talks/james_flynn_why_our_iq_levels_are_...
philipov 8y ago
Is it possible (wink wink) that our ability to distribute and search information has far surpassed the pace of the expanding web of knowledge?
tluyben2 8y ago
Grade inflation is also related to money pressure; more students getting diplomas means more money, so there is a perverse incentive to lower the levels.

Grade inflation refers to the phenomena of getting an "A" despite having what used to be a "B" or "C" level of knowledge. So, it's possible there's an incidental correlation but there's no causation if the phenomena is real. If you've seen how the average kid uses the internet, it's a rather laughable suggestion... there is little overlap between social media entertainment sites and the web of knowledge. The biggest contributor to higher grades are the book summary and answer-key sharing sites.

xstartup 8y ago
Grade inflation refers to the phenomena of getting an "A" despite having what used to be a "B" or "C" level of knowledge. If an institution gives grade A based on some objective criteria and students getting the grade C turn out to be successful then methodology of the institution will be considered flawed by the vast majority. Soon, the institution will lose its relevance. If the institutions have to stay relevant, they'll have to make sure the grades are correlated to successful people in some way even if it means handing out grade A to any student!
- 394549 8y ago
  >> Grade inflation refers to the phenomena of getting an "A" despite having what used to be a "B" or "C" level of knowledge. > If an institution gives grade A based on some objective criteria and students getting the grade C turn out to be successful business people then methodology of the institution will be considered flawed by the vast majority. Soon, the institution will lose its relevance. What you describe is grade inflation. Grades aren't meant to be predictors of career success, they're meant to be indicators of past academic performance. My understanding is that once upon a time, a "C" grade meant your work was average or typical, which was perfectly respectable. An "A" or "B" mean your academic work was above the norm or outstanding. People could get C's and go on to have successful, non-academic careers (such as in business) with little comment. With grade inflation, when "average" is an A or B, it's much harder to distinguish the truly academically talented based on their grades, since they're grouped into the same category as average performers.
  - ballenf 8y ago
    > Grades aren't meant to be predictors of career success, they're meant to be indicators of past academic performance. Isn't it both? If we had figured out the perfect academic program for all time, then it could be just a reflection of performance compared to all prior students in the program. Since we haven't, we update the programs and that might mean some aspects become easier and some harder. Or maybe overall easier, if career demands have generally gone down (which, imo, is a much more interesting discussion than whether an 'A' is really an 'A').
- lotsofpulp 8y ago
  I don't see what being a successful business person would have to do with learning the material in a course, such as calculus or physics.
- dsajames 8y ago
  That's not what happens. If A meant success at X, like running a mile in X time meant you could outrun a bear, no matter the percentage of people, it would be great. What's happened is parents pressured schools to get their kids A's to get into college, then colleges set the minimum bar at A+ instead of A, then at A+ and a random selection of thousands of students, all with A+'s. We are at the point where a single A- will drop you 50 slots in class rank. This is like judging the difference between Olympic sprinters instead of seeing the real spread among students.
  - tormeh 8y ago
    That's why I think the universities should be holding high school exams. More generally, students/pupils should be judged by the institutions they're about to enter, rather than the ones they're leaving.
- tormeh 8y ago
  Grading guidelines differ. Where I went, C was considered a good grade - more or less defined as the average among the students who didn't fail. Even an E means you got at least 40% of the points on the test.
- garryc01304 8y ago
  Garry cole GREETINGS EVERYONE, are you looking for a LEGIT and Trustworthy HACKERS with 100% Guarantee and you want to get your job done urgently withing one Hour or you are face with delay and unnecessary excuses and error on your job?. Then Worry no more because easyhackingguru@gmail.com are the Best Bet in any hacking Services. They are ready to render and attend to your job with swift response and No delay at all. Their services are outlined as follows: . LONG TIME LOAN GIVING . PROFESSIONAL in SCHOOL GRADE hanging . WHATSAPP Hack . FACBOOK hack . PROFESSIONAL in any BANK ACCOUNTS TRANSFER . TWITTERS hack . EMAIL,YAHOOMAIL and HOTMAIL ACCOUNTS hack . WEBSITE CRASHED hack . SERVER CRASHED hack . SALES OF SPYWARE and KEYLOGGER SOFTWARE . RETRIVAL OF LOST FILES and DOCUMENTS . ERASE and EXPUNGE of CRIMINAL RECORDS . DATABASE hack . SALES of ATM CARDS in WHITE . SKYPE hack . PAYPAL hack . DROPBOX ACCOUNT hack and Lots more.......... CONTACT: their services at easyhackingguru@gmail.com and you will be glad you did whatsApp contact- +12168104481
lordCarbonFiber 8y ago
This is so ignorant to the advancements in pedagogy over the past several decades as to be insulting. Part of, if maybe not the biggest or only factor, the increase in grades is we are just hugely better at teaching than we were 30 or 40 years ago. Teaching for mastery, the idea of reversing the role of homework vs tests (in terms of relative difficulty and exposure to new information) to better facilitate self learning, formalized programs to act as tutoring and support systems, all of these are increasing student performance by design. Not only that but as far as higher education goes how are you even trying to compare to "what used to be B or C knowledge"? What in the 70s was graduate level transistor research is basic undergrad course studies, for example. Introduction to programming would have been on punch cards in the 80s, today's students are using python. Are you surprised that they do better given the advances in tooling? The "kids these days" argument is so, so tired and honestly every time I see it Im not surprised so many of the old guard (rich off of just being in the industry during the dot com boom) think they're being targeted for "age discrimination".
- madengr 8y ago
  I used that argument back in 4th grade to my parents: “Math is harder for me since there have been more advancements since you were kids”. I can only speak for electrical engineering, but the basics have not changed in 100 years. Crack open a text book from 100 years ago and you’ll find the same control theory, circuit analysis, electromagnetics, etc. The difference may be vacuum tubes vs. transistors, but the analysis is them same. Many things are a lot easier to do now with computers, and I’ll wager a student of 100 years ago had better analytical skills. It’s not just grade inflation either, but degree inflation. The PhD is the new MS, etc down the line.
  - lordCarbonFiber 8y ago
    That's patently false, and your example is a straw man. Sure your grade school arithmetic hasn't increased much, but I'd assure you university maths have. As far as EE goes, I mean sure macro-electronic theory is pretty much the same, but micro-electronics didn't even exist 100 years ago. This is now a standard required class. Digital signal processing again, didn't even exist 100 years ago, now we teach it to sophomores. The foundations that were the same have persisted and the field has done nothing but expand; this trend is replicated across most disciplines. The data doesn't support your assessment of declining analytical skills. The ability for abstract thought has been monotonically increasing for the past 100 years.[0] I understand the appeal, oh kids these days aren't disrupting anything, my job is safe. The issue is, there's not much data to support the platitude. Globalization means you're competing with billions more people, education achievement has to increase to match; or be left behind. https://www.ted.com/talks/james_flynn_why_our_iq_levels_are_higher_than_our_grandparents https://www.ted.com/talks/james_flynn_why_our_iq_levels_are_...

philipov 8y ago

Is it possible (wink wink) that our ability to distribute and search information has far surpassed the pace of the expanding web of knowledge?

tluyben2 8y ago

Grade inflation is also related to money pressure; more students getting diplomas means more money, so there is a perverse incentive to lower the levels.