Many times an article can be looked over, and not taken very seriously when it seems as if the author has no proof or evidence. With this being said Phil Primack wrote the article “Doesn’t Anybody Get a C Anymore?” Where he from the beginning established that there was a problem when he explained how a student said a B was a “low grade.” Primack used a lot of quotes from other people and professors that validate his main claim, and the points he is making. A similar article is Stuart Rojstaczer article “Grade Inflation Gone Wild” where he clearly states the problem of grade inflation. Rojstaczer did not use any quotes which gave Primack’s article a little more edge on effectiveness.
Stuart Rojstaczer used to be a professor at Duke University with a Ph.D. in earth science. Since then he has been motivated by the inflation of grades at a liberal arts college and then started to do research on a bunch of other schools to see if it could compare. His purpose was to list how grades have
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Although this is less than Rojstaczer used Primack provides more evidence and stronger claims that make his article more effective. Primack uses claims of facts by starting with a story and then explaining how grade inflation is an issue at hand. Then continues to talk about Harvard and give statistics on the grade differences between 1950 and 2007. He uses claims of value by explaining how the way grades used to be seen have really changed over the years. A “C” is now not always seen as average but below average to many students. I really enjoyed the way Primack went about his article and his strategies he used. He started off with a story and then eased into explaining how this mindset affects teachers and the way they grade. Having the background and then getting to the point is a very good approach that I feel is more effective in general. It is an approach that I would consider using in my own
In Brent Staples “Why Colleges Shower Their Students With A’s”, he claims that professors in colleges in the 1990’s are changing their grading on students assignments so much where that they are just passing out good grades when students don’t even deserve them. Colleges have started to change the whole grading system over the years just to make it look like the students are doing better. For example, “In some cases, campuswide averages have crept up from a C just 10 years ago to B-plus today” (Staples 1). There are many reasons as to why they day this.
The essay of Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s by Brent Staples clearly mimics a problem solution essay that is very heavily focused on the problem. Staples takes a very assertive standpoint in insisting that over inflation of grades due to particular pressure on adjunct professors are devaluing degrees from collegiate institutions. Staples is convincing in this assertion as he uses generalized facts, “In some cases, campus wide averages have crept up from a C just 10 years ago, to a B-plus today.” This alarming quotation is used as evidence that supports Staples’ claim of a major problem facing collegiate institutions nationwide. The solution that Staples proposes, is a new grade point average formula.
The well-known phrase of hard work pays off is a staple of any culture to enforce the ideology that you deserve what you earn. In Brent Staples’, Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A's, he informs the reader of the current situations in colleges and universities involving grade inflation. Grade inflation is devaluing many degrees across the country as an “easy way out” to succeed on both the students and professors ends. Staples makes it known that the higher education, many go back to school for, is being discredited due to the professors in the field. Thus, leaving students at a disadvantage to accept a higher grade, when it is known that they have not fairly earned it.
By presenting the reader with a teachers perspective when grading and also giving the reader a new plan of attack when writing an essay Paul McHenry Roberts makes a direct and relatable argument to his intended audience; students. In the excerpt “Avoid the Obvious Content” Roberts begins by stating the typical ideas used by the majority of students through the example topic of why college football should be abolished. When he introduces this he makes the argument relatable to the reader because they can think back on a time when they too used these ideas. He then continues to let the reader know how teachers truly feel about these run of the mill ideas “… inexorably repeated has brought him to the brink of lunacy.” (Line 7) Explaining that
One of the biggest concerning the need for an increase in rigor in instruction in American schools. She discusses that in Poland students must stay in academic classes for an extra year and teachers are paid bonuses to engage in professional development work. She also notes that in Finland they “rebooted their teacher-training colleges, forcing them to become much more selective and rigorous.” In an article written by Sarah Tantillio on Only Good Books, she recognizes the validity of these statements, but comments that in America “the Common Core States Standards, which most states have adopted, they are definitely rigorous, But how they are implemented (and assessed) from state to state and school to school is still a Very Big Question.” Further in her article she points out the large population differences between Finland, Poland, and the United States, and how this affects our education system.
Summary on Kurt Wiesenfeld’s “Making the Grade” In the Essay “Making the Grade” written by Kurt Wiesenfeld, He tells us all about his experience with students coming to him after grades have been posted wanting their grades changed or asking how to get a better grade. In this essay he argues about how students wait or just plain out don’t do their work and then what a better grade which they have not earned. He also, argues that student now days are set in an era where everyone wins.
In school students do not care about writing as much as they used to. If they would work harder in school, their grades would be higher and more colleges would want them. In Esther Cepeda 's research, she managed to prove that students test scores are going down. That is because they do not work as hard as they used to.
So in one way, students do have the right to criticize grades that are given and also have the right to have their paper reviewed again if necessary. But it has become very obvious that most students are pretty much taking advantage of the preexisting weakness to obtain As. This is not fair at all to the student that worked extremely hard and in all manner earned their A. It is very unfortunate that the students getting real grades will be at disadvantage and non-competitive while competing with the students having non-justified high grades. When these students enter practical life by serving in business firms, teaching children, and providing social services etc, they will not have developed the required set of skills and not acquire necessary knowledge needed to perform their
He declares that Americans have won 333 Noble prizes in economic, physics, medicine and chemistry. Four of the world’s top five university and seven of the top 10 university are in the United States. This is the outcome to Becker and Murphy cause and effect response. “Placing a greater emphasis on education, dispensing rapidly rising rewards to those who stay in school.” Roemer awards example is American overcome inequality and achieving true prosperity just as Brandon King
Carnoy, Loeb, and Smith (2003) found a weakness in the relationships between TAKS scores and other outcomes such as high school graduation rates and scores on college entrance exams. Other researchers (Klein, Hamilton, McCaffrey, & Steecher, 2000) analyzed increases in scores in Texas on the NAEP, increases that they state political leaders attributed to the accountability system, and found that Texas score improvements in mathematics at grade 8 are not significantly different from those of other states that did not have strong accountability systems in place. In fact their data show evidence that the achievement gap between white students and underrepresented minorities actually increased. Some argue that the data show that the accountability program actually negatively impacts schools that were already academically behind before the implementation of the accountability system (Fassold,
Imagine blowing up a balloon, with every exhale of breath the balloon gets bigger. Similar to a balloon, with every year that passes grades inflate. In “Grade Inflation Gone Wild” by Stuart Rojstaczer, he discusses how the grading system has changed over the years. Rojstaczer’s overall purpose is to increase awareness of grade inflation and persuade his audience to take action. He argues that “changes in grading have had a profound influence on college life and learning” (2).
The essay intends to persuade and provoke the reader. By using non-statistical based evidence Gatto manages to build a solid case for their being problems with the education system, however, his solution to these problems is incredibly lackluster. The solution Gatto presents is simply for the reader to teach their own children, rather than have them schooled. The problem with this is that this solution will only ever apply to people who read Gatto’s essay, it fixes none of the problems with the education system. The lackluster solution is even more sad since Gatto presents good evidence that the issues are systemic, and by ignoring a potential solution the essay reads more like a consumer warning than a serious treatise on the education
The Hechinger Report mentioned a “modest degree of improvement” in early 2016. This can also be attributed that many school districts are more focused on exceling in the yearly examinations and teach year-round on how to pass the test and not on how to understand the information being taught. The higher the percentage of passing students, the more recognition the school receives under the Every Student Succeeds Act grants. Consequently, the over enthusiasm of a school district in Atlanta, Georgia showed evidence of teachers who were inflating test scores in order to obtain better numbers for the district. This seemingly high success rate came attached to bonuses for the 11 teachers involved.
Levine claims that schools are starting to expand the quality of the student body by the rate of the students standardized test (22). Colleges are not looking to get students who do not apply themselves, but also, colleges are making it harder for the poor students that are trying to better their education. Along the same lines, Graff reminds us of the competition of comparing test scores in school (249). Graff explains, in school scores are made up by one’s reading ability, instead of, like in sports, the actual competition itself or arguing (249). Overall schools are using test scores as a way to compete with education instead of looking out for the best interests of the
In the first article (“Don't Lower the Bar”), Pitts uses a comparison between the different goals for white and black students in Florida corresponding with their math grade levels. Pitts states how “Florida set a goal of having 86% of white kids at or above grade level in math by 2018. For black kids, the goal is 74%”. When Pitts uses these stats, he is putting how much the education bar is lowered for black students in perspective by comparing the percent of students that should be at or above their grade level math. In the second article (“Torture might work but that's not the issue”), Pitts includes a stat about drunk drivers, “ ...drunk drivers kill almost 10,000 people a year”.