Grade Inflation

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“Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid” (Albert Einstein). For decades, we have used a grading system to measure how well educated an individual is compared to his/her peers. With that being said, should Einstein’s quote be thought about more when thinking of ways to improve the grading system? I mean, what happens to those who work harder than others yet still can’t seem to pass? Grading, although the thought makes most students cringe, actually is very important in the process of learning. Most students typically enjoy the occasional “no-graded homework or exam”, yet in all reality, grading is what makes us work harder. If exams and homework assignments…show more content…
(I know I wouldn’t). Grades are scary though; they determine your future and how hard it could potentially be. With that being said, some people are worried grades are becoming easier to achieve (grade inflation), therefore making it difficult to determine if one individual stands out. This argument of grade inflation was answered by Harvard assistant professor, Jordan Ellenberg in a theoretical experiment he created. In reaction to Harvey Mansfield, Ellenberg’s rather humorous article brought to attention that grade inflation is indeed “no big deal”. To make his point, Ellenberg depicted different scenarios where the grading system differed, yet the sample size as well as standard deviation remained the same. In his first scenario, (I presume to be a sarcastic jab at Mansfield) only one grade was given, which was an A. Because there is no variation,…show more content…
Which also goes back to the ACT, (a norm-referenced test) if perhaps it isn’t already known, it existence is to measure how likely one will succeed in college. An article in the SeattlePi states that those who reach the “college readiness benchmarks” are more likely to succeed in college. To go even further, students with a score of 22 and above on the math portion are said to have a 50% chance of attaining a B and a 75% chance at attaining a C. That means that those with scores lower than 22 have little statistical chance at even achieving an A. I say this because of my experience with taking the ACT. I took it 4 times: the first time I received an 18, second, I scored a 20, and third and fourth I received a 21. Basically I am considered an average student compared to everyone else. I would not have been able to attend Ou as a freshman due to my low score, nor did it say I was ready for college on two sections of the test. However, while attending Rose State Community College, I was able to maintain a 4.0 while working almost 30 hours a week at a local bank. So does that mean I am smart or just working hard? Or perhaps my courses at Rose were really easy compared to the ACT, or perhaps the ACT is not a good way of measuring
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