Grade Inflation : Academic Standards in Higher Education

by Hunt, Lester H.

• ISBN13: 9780791474976
• ISBN10: 0791474976
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-07-10
• Publisher: State Univ of New York Pr

Summary

"This book provides a provocative look at the issues and controversies surrounding grade inflation, and, more generally, grading practices in American higher education. The contributors confront the issues from a number of different disciplines and varying points of view. Topics explored include empirical evidence for and against the claim that there is a general upward trend in grading, whether grade inflation (if it exists) is a problem, which ethical considerations are relevant to grading, and whether heavy reliance on anonymous student evaluations of teaching excellence has a distorting effect on grading practices. Finally, the contributions offer contrasting perspectives on the prospects for reform."--BOOK JACKET.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. vii
Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xxv
The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation	p. 1
Undergraduate Grades: A More Complex Story Than "Inflation"	p. 13
Understanding Grade Inflation	p. 45
Grade Inflation and Grade Variation: What's All the Fuss About?	p. 73
From Here to Equality: Grading Policies for Egalitarians	p. 93
Grade "Inflation" and the Professionalism of the Professoriate	p. 109
Fissures in the Foundation: Why Grade Conflation Could Happen	p. 121
Grading Teachers: Academic Standards and Student Evaluations	p. 153
Combating Grade Inflation: Obstacles and Opportunities	p. 171
Grade Distortion, Bureaucracy, and Obfuscation at the University of Alabama	p. 191
Afterword: Focusing on the Big Picture	p. 201
List of Contributors	p. 217
Index	p. 219
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