Grade Inflation
Academic Standards in Higher Education
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An authoritative and provocative discussion of the key issues surrounding grade inflation and its possible effects on academic excellence.
Description
This book provides a provocative look at the issues and controversies surrounding grade inflation, and, more generally, grading practices in American higher education. The contributors confront the issues from a number of different disciplines and varying points of view. Topics explored include empirical evidence for and against the claim that there is a general upward trend in grading, whether grade inflation (if it exists) is a problem, which ethical considerations are relevant to grading, and whether heavy reliance on anonymous student evaluations of teaching excellence has a distorting effect on grading practices. Finally, the contributors offer contrasting perspectives on the prospects for reform.
Lester H. Hunt is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the author of Character and Culture and Nietzsche and the Origin of Virtue.
Reviews
"As state and federal agencies begin to talk about accountability for universities, the topic of grade inflation could become even more politicized. This timely book addresses a topic of significant public interest and does it well. The fact that the contributors disagree, take different approaches, and address different aspects of grade inflation is a virtue. " — Kenneth A. Strike, author of Ethical Leadership in Schools: Creating Community in an Environment of Accountability
"This book encourages academic communities to engage in constructive debate over their professional responsibilities as evaluators of student academic work. Its greatest strength is that it presents disparate perspectives on the complex topics of grading and grade inflation. The contributors are in a real sense engaged in a discussion on the subject, which makes the book refreshing and intellectually stimulating. " — Matthew Hartley, University of Pennsylvania