For all you Grovers out there...
The mean of my students grade on the last exam we had was 79.8%. Now, everyone seemed to think that was too low. So, I'm taking a poll. For those of you who made it through four years at the Grove....is that a low mean???
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4 comments:
I don't think so. There has been lots of grade inflation across the board lately, as all students expect to do well and think they can leverage a low mean against the instructor. At GCC, as I've said before, averages in science classes tended to be between 60 and 78, while averages in religion and intro classes tended to be between 84 and 94.
I think the mean should be strictly between 51 and 49. That way the prof doesn't lose any granularity in the higher scores, and everyone in the class knows where he/she placed relative to the rest.
Mad props for using the word 'mean'. Nice bit of verbal legerdemain. (Not unlike this sentence... heh heh, I kill me)
All the grad students I know have been discussing grade inflation and how higher education is becoming a means to shuffle people through the diploma checkout line whether or not they deserve it.
I think you should fail people just for fun.
Honestly, though, that's a decent mean. If you're just going to pass everyone, why bother to grade? Why not just hand everyone a blanket "A" and say "Great job, even though you actually suck"?
what about outliers? I know Welton would sometimes throw out the really lows (there was usually a ceiling effect, so he never threw out the highs) before reporting means to the class. All it takes is one person to totally bomb a test like that in a small class to destory any statistical significance (in the significant sense, not the actual statistical significance ... or whatever)
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