The Perils of Grading on a Curve

IT'S CALLED A CURVE. Good piece on grading and grading standards by Michael Lopez. Highlight of the discusson on curve grading:

The biggest problem I see is this: what if every student in a Combinatorics class actually gets all the right answers? Who gets the A's?

Personally I use standard-based grading: every student in my classes who who earns an A gets an A. Of course, students who earn them also get Cs, Ds and Es. (E is failing; Fs at IIT are reserved for Pass/Fail-graded courses).
[Via Highered Intelligence]

Posted by trygstad | Category: Academia | 11:31 AM