Title: Grade inflation : academic standards in higher education /
Authors: Hunt, Lester H., 1946-
Publisher: State University of New York Press,
Year: 2008
Subjects: Grading and marking (Students) United States; Education, Higher Standards United States.
Abstract: "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 contributions offer contrasting perspectives on the prospects for reform."--BOOK JACKET.
Contents: The dangerous myth of grade inflation / Alfie Kohn -- Undergraduate grades: a more complex story than "inflation" / Clifford Adelman -- Understanding grade inflation / Richard Kamber -- Grade inflation and grade variation: what's all the fuss about? / Harry Brighouse -- From here to equality: grading policies for egalitarians / Francis K. Schrag -- Grade "inflation" and the professionalism of the professoriate / Mary Biggs -- Fissures in the foundation: why grade conflation could happen / Mary Biggs -- Grading teachers: academic standards and student evaluations / Lester H. Hunt -- Combating grade inflation: obstacles and opportunities / Richard Kamber -- Grade distortion, bureaucracy, and obfuscation at the University of Alabama / David T. Beito and Charles W. Nuckolls -- Afterword: focusing on the big picture / Lester H. Hunt.