Grade Inflation Pays But So Does Rolling Back the Odometer – Or Overrating a Bond

But, eventually, the piper gets paid.  Unearned grades means unlearned material. I just read the following article, Correspondence Bias in Performance Evaluation: Why Grade Inflation Works by Don A. Moore, Samuel A. Swift, Zachariah S. Sharek and Francesca Gino of Carnegie Mellon University.  http://www.cbdr.cmu.edu/papers/pdfs/cdr_608.pdf. After hypothesizing (and later demonstrating) that graduate schools don’t pay attention to any particular […]

Do Princeton’s Administrators Pass Their Letters Through the “Office of Communications” Before Publication?

It seems like it from this, http://dailyprincetonian.com/opinion/2014/03/letter-from-the-editor-increasing-transparency-in-guest-submissions/.  If so, why? and what changes happen to the letters?  Does the Office just help adminstrators?  Are the administrators encouraged to seek help from “public relations”?  Is the “Office of Communications” just a marketing department?  I don’t know but it seems worrisome.  Here is my comment. ” This letter does a good […]

I Hope Princeton and its New President are Listening

I commented on the article http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304756104579453570560473730 . As I have posted before, I am concerned that Princeton faculty don’t see what is happening as clearly as the University of Chicago faculty saw in the nineties.  (See my post Princeton Giving Up on Using Grades As Motivation and Feedback? for Princeton and “Content Deflation” Part II:  University of […]

The Start of Grade Inflation Wonderfully Described by Someone Who Was There

There is a new comment on my post Education First? or, Endowment First? .  I recommend reading the whole comment; but, here, I want to call attention to the excellent description of how much everything changed in such a short time.  I will add some thoughts at the end. “When I first started college in 1967, the […]

Princeton Giving Up on Using Grades As Motivation and Feedback?

“That is my worry.  I will state my position as briefly as I can:  If the same material is taught to similar students, then the times it is taught with a higher standard for an A, B, etc…. will be the times that, on average, more students will learn more.  Now on to what is happening at Princeton. The […]