I’ll admit to being a fairly generous grader. If students turn in all their work and don’t massively screw up, they should be able to get a C or better from me. Earning an A is a little trickier, and I very occasionally get complaints about this. All in all, though, I’m sure I give higher grades than many of my colleagues in math, engineering, and the sciences.
Soon, though, we may all come under pressure to hand out A’s like candy at the homecoming parade – or at least pass students even if they don’t bother to show up. Earlier this week, my university’s president issued a memo informing us of cuts to higher ed in the new state budget. It included this little bombshell:
The state budget also implements Ohio’s new performance-based funding formula, which focuses on course completions and degrees awarded.
Course completions? Degrees awarded? Hey, these “outcomes” (as the bureaucrats like to say) are largely out of the university’s control. We already do lots of hand-holding. Students have access to free tutoring, writing assistance, and a Student Help Center (which a friend of mine does a fine job of managing). Faculty devote unreasonable amounts of time to advising. We field questions from parents, some of which are very legit (as when a student is struggling with physical or mental health issues), while others are just silly (your kid is old enough to buy his own textbooks!). Many of us email students who stop coming to class and reach out to students who seem troubled; we can’t play therapist but maybe we can listen and provide a helpful adult perspective.
At a certain point, though, students have to do their own part. They have to show up for class. They have to turn in their work on time. They have to study without a parent or instructor leaning over their shoulders.
Call me old-fashioned, but I don’t see how creating incentives to give away grades, course credits, and degrees is going to help students learn – or make Ohio more “competitive.”
Patron cat of Kittywampus (1985-2001)
When I taught at OU, the overall grade was split roughly at 30% lab/homework and 70% exams. This meant that it wasn’t too difficult for a student to get a C but that meant that they could often advance without really having the requisite knowledge to continue to higher level courses. That said, I rarely had transfer students that were better equipped than ours were. I fear this may change.
Yeah, a C grade in the intro to women’s and gender studies probably predicts total implosion in feminist theory (a 300-level course). Luckily, people who flail in the intro tend not to take higher-level classes. I imagine this is quite different in the sciences. In fact, I *know* that the *good* grades I got in college calculus (lo those many years ago) didn’t indicate I was ready for the classes that followed.
One remarkable aspect of the president’s memo is that this announcement about “course completions and degrees awarded” didn’t even merit a single sentence of commentary.