ACTA's Must-Reads
« The A+ core | Main | Pretty lousy in Louisiana »
Can basketball help stop grade inflation?
Since certain universities seem more concerned with their athletic programs than what goes on in the classroom, it makes sense for concerned academics to speak their language.
Last month, we pointed out Stuart Rojstaczer's Sweet Sixteen of non-grade-inflating colleges and universities. Now economist Eli Dourado is offering a novel solution to rampant grade inflation: make grading work like the RPI index used in college basketball, where schools are ranked not just by whether they win or lose, but by whether or not their wins were against tough opponents. Under his scheme, students who do well in difficult classes would get more credit than those electing to take creampuffs.
We're not certain that this is the best solution, but it's the kind of creative thinking that can't hurt. Now that the average GPA at private schools has reached 3.3 (it's 3.0 at publics), there clearly are major changes needed. And trustees have a key role to play in addressing the problem, as we outline in our guide on grade inflation. In the meantime, who knows? If Dourado's idea catches on, with a little luck someday ESPN might start covering math exams.
Posted by Eric Markley on June 04, 2010 at June 4, 2010 02:44 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.goactablog.org/blog/mt-tb.cgi/763