By Shawn Frazier
Arizona Daily Wildcat
February 13, 1998

Instructors who grade on curve unfair to students

To the Editor:

I would like to address what I feel is a serious problem at the University of Arizona. Over the course of my time here, I have been disappointed to discover that many of my instructors regularly implement a grading system that can only be described as a quota system. Students will receive grades based solely on the ranking of their performance withrespect to that of their classmates. Little or no regard is given to the individual student's actual performance relative to the course material required to be learned. Instead of grades being used as a reflection of how well students meet requirements and standards, they are being used only as a ranking system - one that recognizes next to nothing of how much of the material the students actually learn or how well those students actually perform.

I understand that instructors are given some freedom in setting up the grading systems to be used in their particular classes. However, in speaking with some of the instructors, I have learned that many of them are encouraged or even pressured by their departments to implement such grading systems in order to affect the department's overall average, making it appear to be an ideal, normally shaped average. While it is true that the normal curve describes many things that occur in nature, it does not accurately describe all samples of things, in all situations (every classroom at the university, for example). It is my opinion that this type of grading system is not only unfair in that it does not accurately measure performance against a set standard; it also reduces motivation not only of the student to learn, but of the instructor to teach.

If the university feels that the reputation of the school is jeopardized by "grade inflation," then it needs to evaluate the standards of education it sets. If those standards are too low, then raise them. A grade quota system will certainly bring a stop to any grade inflation, but it also will detract from the ultimate goal of education by turning a blind eye to the actual performance of its students and instructors In the end, the result will be an inefficient program of education that has no viable way of giving credence to its accomplishments or to those of its graduates.

Shawn Frazier
Operations Management Senior