Assessing the A’s

Assessing the A’s

There should be scrutiny to establish whether the claims that Kent State professors arbitrarily issue high grades to all students because students should be allowed to receive the grades they deserve for their academic input. Most people go to school, colleges, universities, or any other learning institution with an aim to excel in the courses they pursue. No person goes to any learning institution with an aim to fail. Any learning institution expects its students to succeed and that is the reason why teachers and professors to assist them. Despite this reality, the question remains what happens when a section of the teachers or professors feel that students are given higher grades than they deserve? According to an article written by Daniel Moore on December 2, 2013 in the Daily Kent State, an exploration of the so called a tradition by the Professors in the Kent State of awarding most students with either grade A or B is given. As per the school’s catalog, grades A and B are designated as average. The claims by the author are based on a research carried out between the Spring of 2008 to that of 2013. The research indicated that out of about 10 letters issued by the professors from the State of Kent, more than seven were either A or B. About 40 percent of the grade letters issued were A’s. According to the author, in the same period, grades that are indicated as being “fair or average” were not frequent. The report also stated that16 percent of the grades given were C while a paltry 11 percent were grades D’s and F’s.

The trend of awarding students higher grades in the State of Kent has caused considerable level of concern among some professors and some administrators, who feel that the grades being awarded are inflated (7). They are in favor of another criteria or philosophy of grading students. They are in favor of the statistical bell curve, which proposes that about half of all the students in a class should be graded below average. In order to bring out the fact.............