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So true. Curve grading works well when the cohort is large and heterogenous. (Like, say, Finnish matriculation exams. >20k people in a single cohort, and each i

by bostik 4y ago

So true. Curve grading works well when the cohort is large and heterogenous. (Like, say, Finnish matriculation exams. >20k people in a single cohort, and each individual exam within the whole thing with at least 5k people in them.) As far as I'm concerned, curve grading single courses is just as bad as stack ranking at work. And in here, with high concentration of engineers who loathe stack ranking, a disproportionate fraction are somehow in favour of per-course curve grading. Blind spot? Stockholm syndrome? Go figure.

Ekaros 4y ago
Fun thing with Matriculation examination. The small subjects are not on curve. Like for example Latin... Or higher level Russian where there is enough native speakers to have an effect on it. Whole stack ranking is just weird. Either the people are good enough to do the work or not. If not eventually fire them. On other hand at top the rewarding extra is an problem, but I don't know if you can do that without someone gaming it.
- bostik 4y ago
  That's a good point, thank you. I wasn't aware of it, or at least didn't actively remember the fact. But it makes sense and circles on the same thing. Curve grading only makes sense when the cohort being evaluated is large and varied enough. > Whole stack ranking is just weird. Either the people are good enough to do the work or not. Even at the risk of veering quite far from the thread topic, I am not sure that's the only angle to look at things. In my experience, pretty much anyone who is genuinely curious and has the discipline to work at understanding how/why a ${THING} functions, is going to be good at their job. Some people just don't find what their thing is, and surprisingly many are in jobs where they are not even allowed to figure it out.
JohnBooty 4y ago
As far as I'm concerned, curve grading single courses is just as bad as stack ranking at work. In my years of schooling, I never saw curve grading resemble "stack ranking" whatsoever. In stack ranking you have to designate some team members as superior and some as bad. You could have a team of ineffective idiots and be forced to label some of them as high achievers, or a team of superstars and be forced to label some of them as bad. I agree that this is manifestly ridiculous. I've never seen curve grading like that.

by bostik 4y ago

Ekaros 4y ago

Fun thing with Matriculation examination. The small subjects are not on curve. Like for example Latin... Or higher level Russian where there is enough native speakers to have an effect on it. Whole stack ranking is just weird. Either the people are good enough to do the work or not. If not eventually fire them. On other hand at top the rewarding extra is an problem, but I don't know if you can do that without someone gaming it.

bostik 4y ago
That's a good point, thank you. I wasn't aware of it, or at least didn't actively remember the fact. But it makes sense and circles on the same thing. Curve grading only makes sense when the cohort being evaluated is large and varied enough. > Whole stack ranking is just weird. Either the people are good enough to do the work or not. Even at the risk of veering quite far from the thread topic, I am not sure that's the only angle to look at things. In my experience, pretty much anyone who is genuinely curious and has the discipline to work at understanding how/why a ${THING} functions, is going to be good at their job. Some people just don't find what their thing is, and surprisingly many are in jobs where they are not even allowed to figure it out.

JohnBooty 4y ago

As far as I'm concerned, curve grading single courses is just as bad as stack ranking at work. In my years of schooling, I never saw curve grading resemble "stack ranking" whatsoever. In stack ranking you have to designate some team members as superior and some as bad. You could have a team of ineffective idiots and be forced to label some of them as high achievers, or a team of superstars and be forced to label some of them as bad. I agree that this is manifestly ridiculous. I've never seen curve grading like that.