Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
Developing critical thinking
Developing critical thinking
Persuasive techniques in writing english
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Developing critical thinking
Developing critical thinking
Persuasive techniques in writing english
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Brent Staples wrote a beautiful, yet unconvincing article about colleges giving away “free” A’s to students. The article, “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s,” appeared in 1988 in the New York Times paper (Staples 935). Staples himself has earned a PhD in psychology and is a member of the New York Times editorial board (935). The general purpose of this article was to inform the audience that over the past couple of years, university grading policies have become extremely lenient (935). The audience is a very limited to educational administrations and alumni of major universities.
Would you be happy if you had received an A in your class? Do you feel that you truly learned enough to deserve that perfect A? Students who are in either high school or college are forgetting the true meaning of having knowledge and being able to learn. People think that how well they perform in the classroom will justify how well the teacher teaches their students but necessary that might not always be that way. In Brent Staples piece, “Why Colleges Shower their Students with A’s”, he argues that there must be an end to the grade Inflation and continues by examining for a possible solution by using language techniques to emphasize the main point.
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.
The Game of School: Why We All Play It, How It Hurts Kids, and What It Will Take to Change It by Robert L. Fried is a great tool for identifying challenges in school systems and planning school reform. This book explains in great depth the problems faced by students and educators in schools today and ends with a call to action for solving these problems. Some major concepts that arise frequently throughout the book are time being wasted, students feeling powerless and the prioritization of test scores over authentic learning. Time is wasted by everyone in school and is wasted in various ways, for example students are given busy work and teachers rush through a curriculum while students learn nothing. Students, while they are the most important stakeholders, feel as though they have no control over their education.
Kohn believes grading is a harmful thing for students because it is more of a game with competition. He views grading as something that does not lead to improvements in performance but holds students back from doing their best. He states, “A school’s ultimate mission, apparently, is not to help everyone learn but to rig the game so that there will always be losers” (Kohn 2). Kohn relates school and grading to a game. A game where students begin to try to outdo one another rather than focusing on their academics.
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).
Elona Kalaja Professor Eleni Saltourides ENG 101 Critical Analysis Paper February 21, 2018 Flunking vs Students In the article, “In Praise of the F Word” Mary Sherry argues that flunking students is a method that has been effective in the past and is still effective todays day, and anyone needs to see is as a positive teaching tool. Sherry indicates that flunking students is a method that motivates students to study more and to be more responsible for what is their responsibility. Students challenge is not to get an A or B, but to succeed or to fail.
The author discusses how letter or number grading affects the students and how it makes them question how well they are doing or what they need to do to improve. This causes stress to the student. The author discusses how students now are obsessed with their grades and not their
America’s school systems have taken a turn for the worst and as I read the article “The Case Against Grades” from Slate.com that “SAT reading scores are at a 40 year low, and one study ranked the U.S 17th in education” (Thomsen). These statistics have proved that our school systems are now and have been for a while facing a need for change for the sake of the students. Many reasons have transpired and many people hold their own opinions on the culprit. However, there is such an immense amount of pressure put on students and letter grading is a huge problem with the pressure in our school systems. Putting pressure on all students by labelling their work with a letter grade (A-F) can cause more harm than good.
Students are fully aware of the positive and negative consequences of grade inflation whether it is something as simple as a grade curve or as drastic as a student trying to bargain their way into graduation. However, another smaller issue that arises is the “participation trophy.” When doing something, everyone gets an equal amount of victory. When discussing this topic in class, I realized that many of my peers saw participation trophies and inflated grades as one in the same. Both items apparently trigger narcissism and false hope in children.
In Carl Singleton’s article, “What Our Education System Needs is More F’s,” he argues that students aren’t receiving the failing grades they deserve. School systems are to blame for the lack of quality in America’s education. No other recommendation for improvement will succeed. The only way to fix the American education system is to fail more students. According to Singleton, the real root of the issue is with the parents.
In Kurt Wiesenfeld’s article “Making the Grade”, he address the issue that students want a higher grade than they deserve. He goes on to prove this be by giving examples of previous students that he has had and what can happen when students get the grades that they want and not what they deserve. In Wiesenfeld’s article he states that about ten percent of students that take his class do not care about their grades until final grades are over. “You might groan and moan, but you accepted it as the outcome of your efforts or lack thereof,” Wiesenfeld stated.
There are a lot of kids that go to public schools and have a grading system in which their teacher/facilitator has to use to tell whether they will pass the course or not. Not all students learn the same way or understand the information being taught as quickly as others. Having a grading system determines how well you are doing in the class. If the student is not doing well, it could basically tell the student that they are not going to pass and they will start to think that they shouldn’t try. Not only is a grading scale hard on some students, but as well as the teachers because they are the ones that have to keep up with all of the grades that the students produce on their assignments.
Grades are said to drive students to push themselves even more, yet it is not entirely true. Some students cheat, causing their grades to fly high, and that doesn’t reflect wit at all. In a survey of 24,000 students at 70 high schools, Donald McCabe (Rutgers University) found that 64 percent of students admitted to cheating on a test, 58 percent for plagiarism, and 95 percent for some other form of cheating. (Facts) This proves that grades are more likely to cause students to cheat than to motivate
There is great variation in accountability systems. In some, information on student achievement is published in league tables, and sanctions, including monetary rewards, are attached to performance for schools and teachers. The use of monetary rewards, however, has proved controversial, and usually has not lasted very long. Furthermore, rewarding successful schools at the expense of increasing resources to schools that are failing would not contribute to overall school improvement.