On a similar theme to George’s earlier post, it seems that honest grades are simply how you define them?at any level. Take this article that appeared in USA Today.
Some schools are institutionalizing a ‘new wisdom’ with regard to grading. Administrators feel that any grade below 50 is somehow unfair, so they have re-set the floor for numerical assessment at 50 percent. The only real question is–why didn’t they think of this sooner? In fact, NC end of grade testing has been toying unofficially with something akin to this idea, in the low levels of accomplishment accepted for ‘at grade level’ for some time. Now there are schools in other states realizing the tremendous ‘happiness value’ of the technique, and golly if they haven’t made it official.
Let’s see how well this 50-percenter brainstorm boosts student achievement, shall we? Then George can write about the even lower standards that college professors are forced to accept when these kids enter college–about ten years down the road.
