3 ms·

There is not a lot of positive incentive for a school to be stringent on its own kids. Unless that school is private (for example), and has people willing to k

There is not a lot of positive incentive for a school to be stringent on its own kids. Unless that school is private (for example), and has people willing to keep standards, think about the long term, and resist the relentless pressure to dumb them down. That's why independent assessment (unpopular as it may be) is the only way to keep it in check. Another idea I've come across (this was in the UK) is that people sitting for oral exams, especially, are examined by professors from other schools. That way there's no pressure for the professors of that student to give an easy pass.

watwut 6y ago
Private schools dont have long term interest in giving worst grades. Both their long term and short term interests are in good grades for graduates. Giving easy reward or "unfair" good grade is less of risk then giving unfair bad grade.
- MattGaiser 6y ago
  Private schools sometimes give poor grades internally and then have good grades externally. A friend of mine went to a high school where you got a grade which went on all your interim reports and such. When it came time for report cards and transcripts, the grade was multiplied by somewhere between 1.06 and 1.2.
thaumasiotes 6y ago
> Another idea I've come across (this was in the UK) is that people sitting for oral exams, especially, are examined by professors from other schools. It is an obvious conflict of interest for the same entity to be responsible for both training and assessment. I'm surprised how little this is recognized.
MaxBarraclough 6y ago
> Another idea I've come across (this was in the UK) is that people sitting for oral exams, especially, are examined by professors from other schools. That way there's no pressure for the professors of that student to give an easy pass. This approach is used for PhD thesis defences, although in that case I believe there's an additional force at play: it's not just that they want an examiner who is external and independent, it's that they want the awarded degree to appear legitimate to the rest of the academic world.
sevensor 6y ago
I had the opportunity to be an outside examiner for an honors exam at a private college. It was a fun experience for me; I got to ask probing questions and have them answered by a brilliant young person. I don't know if this was inflationary or not, but I voted to award honors.

watwut 6y ago

Private schools dont have long term interest in giving worst grades. Both their long term and short term interests are in good grades for graduates. Giving easy reward or "unfair" good grade is less of risk then giving unfair bad grade.

MattGaiser 6y ago
Private schools sometimes give poor grades internally and then have good grades externally. A friend of mine went to a high school where you got a grade which went on all your interim reports and such. When it came time for report cards and transcripts, the grade was multiplied by somewhere between 1.06 and 1.2.

thaumasiotes 6y ago

> Another idea I've come across (this was in the UK) is that people sitting for oral exams, especially, are examined by professors from other schools. It is an obvious conflict of interest for the same entity to be responsible for both training and assessment. I'm surprised how little this is recognized.

MaxBarraclough 6y ago

> Another idea I've come across (this was in the UK) is that people sitting for oral exams, especially, are examined by professors from other schools. That way there's no pressure for the professors of that student to give an easy pass. This approach is used for PhD thesis defences, although in that case I believe there's an additional force at play: it's not just that they want an examiner who is external and independent, it's that they want the awarded degree to appear legitimate to the rest of the academic world.

sevensor 6y ago

I had the opportunity to be an outside examiner for an honors exam at a private college. It was a fun experience for me; I got to ask probing questions and have them answered by a brilliant young person. I don't know if this was inflationary or not, but I voted to award honors.