Preview

Too Much Talk Too Little Action Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
740 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Too Much Talk Too Little Action Analysis
Academic Critique: Grade Inflation: Too Much Talk, Too Little Action

Introduction
In the article, “Grade Inflation: Too Much Talk, Too Little Action”, was written by Judson C. Faurer and Larry Lopez. The authors display a pervasive topic in education that affects students, faculty, administrators as well as employers. The article aims at exploring the rapid grade inflation impacts on society. They also layout different proposals to face this phenomenon. Judson Faurer, a professor in the management department, and Larry Loper, a professor in Business department, both at the university of Denves, which serves as a reliable and credible figure on an academic perspective, as both are in touch with the issue at hand. However, the authors did not take into account the different
…show more content…
They pointed out to an extent the grading inflation affected different strata in the academic curriculum. However, their way of addressing the issue, in my opinion, is vague. They might have overlooked external factors that will raise along with the solutions they put in hand. According to Hopkins (2008) who states that, “Tracking leads students to take on labels.” which cause bullying and stereotyping of the lower achieving students (Hopkins, 2008). Another suggestion laid out is to replace student evaluation of faculty to the department or peer chair review, but having personal relationships between reviewers or the different standards of excellence and teaching style may vary. Thus, peer review processes can be biased (Joe Bandy, 2010). The repetition of information is also one of this article weaknesses. Although, the writers fail to notice all the aspects of their solutions proposed, they show commendable effort delivering the concern to the public. Their work would have been more credible if they backed up their argument with faculty or student’s surveys to convey their

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    There seems to be a great misconception on how students are graded by their professors or teachers. Ahmed Afzaal, an assistant professor at Concordia College, concluded that “to the extent that the faculty-student relationship becomes tense and even adversarial, the community is weakened and the goal of perpetual learning is jeopardized” (Afzaal, 2012). While grading his students’ work, he takes a different approach “one that will enhance rather than impede their learning” (Afzaal, 2012). However it is noted that it is not just students having this misconception on grades but “employers, graduate and professional schools, and academic-award givers have a natural, if misguided, interest in undergraduates ' performance” (Dole, 2002).…

    • 271 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the article, The Case against Grades, Alfie Kohn talks about how the grading system is deflecting the actual purpose of why students are interested in classes. He speaks on how grades tend to diminish students and create a preference for what a student has to aim for in his or hers course. I myself have experienced this in my academic life.…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When someone asks you why earning a higher grade in class is important to receive, your first response might be to help increase your grade point average (GPA). But why is a high GPA so coveted? Is it to get into a good post graduate school? But then why is this important? You would probably respond by saying to create more opportunities for yourself when it comes to a career to venture in. These are the questions that Steven Vogel dives into, and gets to the point that through all of these questions lead up to one underlying factor that grades are money and learning is what is paid for. He believes students will attempt to maximize…

    • 979 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The two articles “Student Grades and Average Ratings of Instructional Quality: The Need for Adjustment” and “What if Milgram Controlled Student Grades? A Simple Game for Teaching the Concept of Authority” that we had to read and annotate I found very interesting. The game they played and the statistics they showed in the two articles were so true. You see these things happening all the time through school, at home, and even at a work place. At school it tends to be some ridiculous assignment do in a short amount of time. Everyone has experienced it in a home environment rather they were the one of authority or not, like getting grounded. With the second article on relating teaching to grades I can relate to that slightly because in high school I had a teacher that didn 't teach well and…

    • 1953 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    During this essay the authors tone was very direct and persuasive toward anyone whom was reading the article. All in all, you could conclude that the author, Carl Singleton thinks very poorly teachers and the schooling system in general. Within in the composition the author claims that “Illiteracy among high-school graduates is growing because those students have been passed rather than flunked; we have low- quality teachers who never should have been certified in the first place…” in other words he [the author] believes low quality teaching leads to unfair grading. I believe that teachers probably realize that when kids always get F’s after putting in a lot of effort it lowers their self-esteem and will make them want to give up. Instead of keep trying. I know for a fact that if I kept getting F’s on papers that I worked my heart out on all the time I would eventually quit because I would feel stupid and feel…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    voting

    • 1912 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Grades represent a standard of achievement and understanding, not just a memorization and regurgitation of…

    • 1912 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Response Essay

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages

    I embrace Alfie Kohn’s ideology that by grading a student’s work one actually hinders the process of learning. Having three school-aged children myself, I see the effect grades have on their mindset. If they do not achieve an “A” they feel less than their peers. I also have seen instances where they will pick the easiest assignment or not bother to complete extra credit assignments for grading. Therefore, in this regard I do agree that grading does play a factor in their learning experience. However, the practicality of overcoming the mindset of a nation of people is a daunting task that may very well take years to persuade. As much as I may agree with Mr. Kohn’s ideology, I do not see this becoming mainstreamed within the educational system any time in the near future. His ideology would have to be fully embraced by the educational system for steps of improvement in grading students to take hold. This may very well take a grass roots effort from the parents and citizens themselves before ideology could be changed, which would take much time in educating the public on this subject. As much as I personally would love to see this type of learning be prevalent within our educational system I do not see it happening in my lifetime. One can only hope.…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    We live in a society that uses grades as a reflection of learning. Grades are supposed to show how well you know a subject, but is that what they really show? In our society it has become more about getting the grade than actually learning the subject. What impact do grades even have on learning? Jerry Farber, a professor at the University of California wrote an article, titled “A Young Person’s Guide,” that discussed grades and the impact, or lack thereof, they have on learning. Farber is correct in saying that our school grading systems are terrible because grades are not an accurate representation of someone's knowledge.…

    • 1006 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Consider a sixth grade student. He has been studying for three weeks for his final exam and hopes to receive a high grade. He gets his grade back and sees a “D” on his paper. This single letter changes, not only the attitude of the student, but also the setting of the classroom. Students begin to further segregate themselves into “smart” and “dumb” groups. These letters have defined the “intelligence” of students; students remain demoralized at school, for often times, hard work and ethics are simply not considered good enough for a high grade. Our current grading system acts as an inequitable way to evaluate students’ performance, for this method disregards other potential, affecting factors, such as hard work, additional help, or personal matters.…

    • 646 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Diagnostic essay

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The grade scaling always competition which in return creates an environment for students to strive. WANT MORE! While in a class with someone producing better grades, and…

    • 438 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In Brent Staples article, Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s, he describes multiple reasons as to why grade inflation is such a problem and why it exists. One reason is that most of our teachers are part-time teachers, meaning that they have no job security. They can be threatened easily by students and parents. Another reason why grade inflation exists is to make the college look good. Students with better grades gives a better evaluation for the school and its faculties. This is enforced by the administration. The administration pressers/encourages their faculty to give student…

    • 237 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    These essays disclose the issues concerning grades and how they are perceived and rewarded by teachers. With that being broken down, I realize I go through my classes expecting great grades. Both authors explained that grade inflation is the cause of both high school and college students thinking the same way. The idea of changing the grade scale was for "the benefit" of the students but, I think it is causing the students to slack off. When the students are not being challenged enough, they will begin to go far the bare minimum for the easy grade. There is a solution schools, colleges, and universities can do to resolve grade inflation.…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Grade inflation has been here for a long time now. Grade inflation is when teachers overestimate the work of their students and give them more than what they deserve. This started when the Vietnam war was going on, teachers used to give students a higher grade so that they don’t get forced into joining the war. Although the war is over grade inflation is still in play but now teachers are doing it for other reasons. They might do it because of the pressure from their students, peers or maybe even parents. Nowadays grade inflation is one of the most controversial topics. Some people think it’s the worst thing that could ever happen to our education system, others think that it has some benefits.…

    • 959 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    We all know that teacher’s performance is not 100 percent positive correlation with student’s performance. There is always going to be a student that just doesn't care about school, this person will not try regardless of the teacher's efforts. There will also be student who simply won't be able to understand the material. Try as they might, the teacher might just not be able to make the information understandable for some students. What’s more, if teachers judged by students performance, they may only use their time and energy to teach smart students and ignore the students who traditionally score low. According to the survey of Washington post, responded by more than 1250 teachers among the USA, more than 70% teacher claimed that they will prefer to teach students who easier to get good grade if their performance is only based on students’ test score. Teachers should be rate by the academic quality, teaching skills and classroom…

    • 525 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Standardized exams are made to measures a student’s achievement level. Educators what to see if their kids are ready for college. Now, some have argued that teachers’ grades are sufficient. But the reality is that teacher grading practices can be wildly uneven across schools and…

    • 488 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays