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The Forum > Article Comments > ‘A’ is for average > Comments

‘A’ is for average : Comments

By Walt Brasch, published 9/5/2013

Because of runaway grade inflation, the average grade in college is now an 'A'. About 43 percent of all college grades are 'A's.

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The same is true for HSC marking in NSW, and it's getting worse. We need to stop it now, before it's too far gone to reign in.
Posted by rational-debate, Thursday, 9 May 2013 9:35:45 AM
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It's never going to be too late.

Those with true intellect eventually end up on top of the pile. What we are going therough at the moment right across the west is the demise of the lefties. Eventually they will all be kicked out of our media, our arts and our scholarship.

We are all experiencing their destructive natures in our political systems and the application of their destructive economic policies in our lives.

Look across Australia ans assess who has damaged our society. It is the Greens Labor socialst coalition. And then take a look at the rejection.

Eventually the traditionalists who hold intellect as paramount will rise to the top over the dummy socialists. The problem for the is thst they will lack lack the imagination to do anything about stopping their own demise. Look at the Labor Party destroying itself because of the lack of real intellect. And they think Kevvy and Shorten are intellectual.
Posted by imajulianutter, Friday, 10 May 2013 12:45:25 PM
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We're seeing the outcome of this dumbing-down in the number of students getting into university who can't string together a proper sentence. Recently someone suggested giving NAPLAN tests to would-be teachers before they are allowed to graduate: testing them before they start their degrees might be more useful. I'm not sure we have grade-inflation in Australia as much as continually lowering expectations for university entrance. At least we don't have the American disease of calling university tutors and lecturers 'Professors', or every other company employee a 'Vice-President'.
Posted by Candide, Friday, 10 May 2013 12:57:12 PM
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In "‘A’ is for average" Walt Brasch claims runaway grade inflation has resulted in an average grade college grade of "A.". However, Walt is a professor at a US university: the statistics and institutions he refers to are American. This article has little relevance to Australia, where there is rigorous oversight of tertiary assessment. As an example, each time I run a university course I have to attend an "examiners meeting" where the marks proposed for my students are carefully scrutinized by my peers: http://blog.tomw.net.au/2009/11/examiners-meetings-for-e-learning.html
Posted by tomw, Monday, 13 May 2013 9:07:03 AM
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Yes, an 'A' grade 'mark' loses its value as a measure of scholarly capability when awarded over a wide margin. Any grading of test results that don't approximate with the normal bell curve are questionable. Students are patronised and get a false sense of the merit of their work. The diligent and able student is, in a sense, penalised. Neither benefit. Could it be that this wider A grade level and a disproportionately lower mark for lesser grades reflet on the intellectual poverty of the lecturers and professors who comply? And yes, dumbing down does happen here in Australian tertiary education.
Posted by jenni, Monday, 13 May 2013 2:36:25 PM
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About 12 years ago I briefly taught in a higher education type place. It was very rare to actually fail students (unless they had, in a verifiable way, not turned up for most of the year) because of the fear of being sued; many of the students had an attitude that ; 'I' am paying for a 'qualification' and if I do not get it I will sue you for your failure to deliver what I have paid for.
I think that sheeting the blame home to inflation and dumbing down, misses the real driver behind this phenomena.
Posted by pedestrian, Monday, 13 May 2013 4:49:16 PM
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