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Teacher's role in students academic achievement
Factors affecting school performance
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If you grew up in this generation, then more than likely you grew up watching the Nickelodeon show “The Fairly Odd Parent’s.” The show is about a ten-year-old boy named Timmy Turner. His parents barely parented him and were always gone, therefore they hired a babysitter who seems to be an angle to the parents, but behind closed doors she torments Timmy. One day, he is blessed with the opportunity to be given fairy godparents, Wanda and Cosmo, and they have magical powers and grants Timmy’s wishes. The cartoon show is unpredictable, but after watching it over the years I found one thing that I could predict that happens every time. Timmy’s teacher, Mr. Crocker, always failed Timmy with a grade of an F, and he always gave a character named AJ a letter grade of an A. Some could argue that Timmy simply didn’t study or do his homework, but the show portrays it as the teacher mistreating him. At the end of the day the teacher is the one that plugs the grades into the computer and they solely give you your grade.
In her article, “The Case Against GRADES”, Alfie Kohn discusses the grading system and its faults. She opens her argument with information from an older psychological study that proves the negative impact of the current grading system, and she reinforces this with the proof that “no” research has contradicted this statement. Also, she gives many key reasons including: “Motivation”, “Achievement”, “Quantification”, and “Curriculum”. Kohn supports these topics with other reasearch for why the system is failing the students. She asserts that, “… the absence of grading is a necessary condition for promoting deep thinking and a desire to engage in it.” As support, she offers other solutions and then debunks them by proving that they would not solve
In his essay, "Why Colleges Shower Their Students With A’s,” Staples claims that student grades are increasing for the wrong reasons, causing college degrees to become meaningless. Staples provides evidence that average grades have increased significantly over the last several decades, but claims that it is not because students are working harder. The real explanation for grade inflation, he argues, is the effect of grades on both students and their professors. Teachers give more A’s to receive better evaluations and increase job security. Students give more importance to their grades as a result of the rapidly increasing cost of a college education. Staples argues that modern
In the op-ed, “Grade Inflation Gone Wild,” Stuart Rojstaczer addresses the concern of grade inflation and its effects on students. Rojstaczer uses several different methods to prove his point of view to the reader. Rojstaczer links grade inflation to the sinking quality of education, as well as the rise of college alcoholics. While this op-ed does a satisfactory job appealing to the reader on a person-person basis, many of Rojstaczer’s main claims do not hold any scholarly evidence. This analysis over “Grade Inflation Gone Wild” will discuss whether Rojstaczer has written this editorial solely to convince readers of his opinion, or does Rojstaczer present a credible claim in higher education’s grade inflation.
In “Grades and Money,” Steven Vogel makes it clear that he is disappointed and frustrated with what grades have become. He believes that grades have become commoditized and that students’ grades suffer because of their relation with money. Vogel also believes that students no longer take any risk with their education. I agree with Vogel that grades are being equated to money by students, that students’ work suffers because of grades, and that students no longer take risks in their educational process.
In his essay, “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s,” Brent Staples argues that grade inflation in colleges results in college degrees becoming less valuable. Staples points out that grade inflation is happening among all colleges and there are many factors contributing to this problem. Colleges are willingly giving students good grades that they do not deserve so that the course will not be omitted from the lack of attendance. Part-time teachers’ jobs are at risk because their position is not guaranteed. These teachers were sometimes threatened by the students saying they will complain if their grades are not adjusted for a higher score. With this being said, students are putting pressure on teachers, causing their jobs to be in danger.
The article written by Michael Thomsen addresses the issue: should we as a society continue using a standardized grading system. Thomsen includes many reasons supporting his ultimate conclusion that we should not continue with any system of standardized grades. However, the reasons he uses to support his conclusion are affected by significant ambiguity which weakens the overall argument.
Former professor of geophysics, Stuart Rojstaczer, in his informative op-ed piece, “Grade Inflation Gone Wild,” featured in “Christian Science Monitior(2009),” investigates grade inflation among universities today. Rojstaczer’s purpose is to inform and educate universities on the inflation of grades, and how an A has become the average grade among those schools. He adopts a dismissive tone when generalizing and addressing the students on their behaviors and actions. Rojstaczer found over 80 universities with data on they’re grades, using this he was able to better understand the inflation and also analyze possible solutions. His logos based writing portrays a negative connotation on todays students and their ability to achieve within the classroom. There is no hiding that the standard for grades has been on the rise sense the 1960’s, and is now at an average GPA of a 3.0, but rojstaczer may have lost his audience with his arrogant approach.
The Consequences of Grade Inflation When students arrive at university, professors expect them to understand the material to an exceptional standard. The problem is that grade inflation is occurring more regularly in secondary schools and universities across the country and when these students’ marks are sent to universities or colleges, the student may be given multiple scholarships for something that he/she should not have earned. Grade inflation is conceived between both students and teachers, meaning that the students are given higher grades when they have inadequate learning, reading, and verbal skills, while the teachers do not have to grade as many papers as they should in the real curriculum. There have been multiple examinations that have confirmed that grade inflation is very real and still occurs today. Students seem to think that they do not need to put forth much effort in school to do well, and grade inflation encourages this thought.
Cheaters are becoming more common among young people. Three out of four students surveyed said that they have cheated in high school. This statistic shows that teachers and parents should be concerned about which direction these students are heading. The biggest influence on the act of students cheating is social institutions such as family, school, and mass media. These institutions all play roles on what a student values when it comes to the battle between academic honesty and dishonesty. Social theories such as, the Bystander Effect, the Strain Theory of Deviance, and the Social Norms Theory further our understanding about the reasoning behind cheating.
Many people have heard black is the new orange, or pink is the new green, but in the grading system, F is the new C. Many people from older generations tell me how easy I have it in school now days. They also tell me that they worked twice as hard as I do now to get an A. However, the younger generations have had to do less work to earn an A than the older generations. A great deal of the younger generation uses the Internet to find almost all their solutions to their homework problems without having to actually do much work. Some people do not believe that grade inflation is a problem, but the following research suggests that it points our younger generations towards anti-intellectualism. Grade inflation might occur or become problematic when teachers face pressure from “helicopter parents,” pressure from school athletic programs, or pressure from maintaining common core standards.
Grade retention seems like a reasonable solution to a serious problem. A child is significantly behind their peers, maybe they are emotionally immature, or they cannot quite grasp what is being taught to them. The first thing to do is make sure the child does not have a learning disability, after that, it is determined that since this child is falling so far behind there is no other option than to hold them back a grade. This will ensure that they have time to catch up with their classmates and move on to have a successful school career. Schools implement this every year, despite the research proving how unsuccessful grade retention is. There is no clear cut way to help a struggling child. Children learn in such diverse ways. It is a challenge to help someone falling behind, it takes time, effort and research to realize what is going to be effective for a struggling student. Grade retention is harmful to the student, it negatively impacts the child’s academics, it leads to early dropout, their self-esteem suffers, and it is not a cost effective way to help a child succeed.
In “Stop Giving In To Higher Grades: Ten suggestions On How to Fight Grade Inflation,” the author Kevin C. Costley explains why grade inflation should be strictly decreased and how faculties should act to actually reduce it through providing a good number of citations and his own solutions. Nowadays, not only students and parents but even principals expect higher grade and this kind of problem extensively prevails in the United States. Universities also acknowledge that if the students get poor grades, they will transfer to another institute that retains a more generous grading standard, which eventually leads to imposing pressure on professors. If the students’ grades are inflated, they will not receive the chance to
Two Articles have a different point of view of education, more specifically the effect of standardized tests on education. The first article is "The Quality of Education has Declined" by Karl Zinsmeister and the second article is "The Quality of Education has not Declined" by David C. Berliner. Both of these articles use ethos, pathos, and logos to support their argument that education has either declined or maintained due to standardized testing.
By nature, most students are brought up in an academic environment motivated to get A’s and B’s on their report cards. Those grades sometimes don’t thoroughly report how much a student has learned or gained knowledge in each topic. Some instructors throw in factors totally unrelated to learning, when the main objective of academic institutions is to learn. In order to clearly demonstrate how much a student has learned in the classroom, schools should change their current grading system and teach students how to learn.
In the school I have learned a lot of different things I didn´t knew and start realizing I would have to prepare more and start working the faster and harder I can. As I started studying, I started setting goals I want to achieve in the future. Since the school started, I continue trying to reach my goals of last year and building new ones because everyone wants something and always we are trying to make our goals come true; not all my goals would come true because, in some cases, we set goals we know we can´t reach but we just love trying to reach them.