SEC=UGA Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 A college degree is just about essential to make a lot of money in a career, but what if you don’t want to work all that hard to get a diploma? Slackers wanting to earn the country’s easiest college major, should major in education. It’s easy to get “A’s” if you’re an education major. Maybe that’s why one out of 10 college graduates major in education. Research over the years has indicated that education majors, who enter college with the lowest average SAT scores, leave with the highest grades. Some of academic evidence documenting easy A’s for future teachers goes back more than 50 years! The latest damning report on the ease of majoring in education comes from research at the University of Missouri, my alma mater. The study, conducted by economist Cory Koedel shows that education majors receive “substantially higher” grades than students in every other department. Puff GPA’s Koedel examined the grades earned by undergraduates during the 2007-2008 school year at three large state universities that include sizable education programs — University of Missouri, Miami (OH) University and Indiana University. The researcher compared the grades earned by education majors with the grades earned by students in 12 other majors including biology, economics, English, history, philosophy, mathematics, chemistry, psychology and sociology. Education majors enjoyed grade point averages that were .5 to .8 grade points higher than students in the other college majors. At the University of Missouri, for instance, the average education major has a 3.80 GPA versus 2.99 GPA (science, math, econ majors), 3.12 GPA (social science majors) and 3.16 GPA (humanities majors). Consequences of Easy Grades for Education Majors Why should we care if education majors, who must survive classes like “kiddie lit,” coast through school? For starters, easy grading can prompt students to slack off. If you can earn an “A” with little effort why exert yourself? What’s more, if most students are getting A’s then how can employers distinguish the future teaching stars from the academic slugs? Koedel also suggests that the low academic standards required of education majors can extend to low expectation of teachers after they leave college. Low grading standards in education departments may contribute to the culture of low evaluation standards in education more generally. Although the existence of such a link is merely speculative at this point, there is a striking similarity between the favorable grades awarded to prospective teachers during university training and the favorable evaluations that teachers receive in K-12 schools. It sounds like the only ones who are flunking these days are the education professors, who handing out all these easy A’s. These profs should spend time with teachers in departments like chemistry and economics to see how real grading works. Read more: http://moneywatch.bnet.com/spending/blog/c.../#ixzz1PuidqZm8 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Country Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 I wonder if some of it is that in majors like math and science and to a large degree economics, there are right and wrong answers. In most education classes (and, from what I know from a friend with a degree in liberal arts), most of the grading is based on "feelings" and "interpretation" of literature/situations. I mean, unless you are asking questions like did the author actually say this or that, a teacher can't really claim someone's interpretation is incorrect. I guess they could grade down for poor grammar, sentence structure, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiegie Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 (edited) I wonder if some of it is that in majors like math and science and to a large degree economics, there are right and wrong answers. In most education classes (and, from what I know from a friend with a degree in liberal arts), most of the grading is based on "feelings" and "interpretation" of literature/situations. I mean, unless you are asking questions like did the author actually say this or that, a teacher can't really claim someone's interpretation is incorrect. I guess they could grade down for poor grammar, sentence structure, etc. there is likely more to it than that--when you have some degree of subjectivity in how you have to grade, students are going to get mad if you grade them lower than what they feel they "deserve" (and remember that many many students today have well outsized senses of entitlement). Hence, when it comes time for the students to "evaluate" the teacher's performance at the end of the semester, they will likely score a hard-grader" teacher lower than if the teacher had given out better/easier grades. It's still not a problem until you learn that very often teachers' raises and/or tenure decisions are based in LARGE part on student evaluations and you have a clear recipe for easy grading. Edited June 21, 2011 by wiegie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 there is likely more to it than that--when you have some degree of subjectivity in how you have to grade, students are going to get mad if you grade them lower than what they feel they "deserve" (and remember that many many students today have well outsized senses of entitlement). Hence, when it comes time for the students to "evaluate" the teacher's performance at the end of the semester, they will likely score a hard-grader" teacher lower than if the teacher had given out better/easier grades. It's still not a problem until you learn that very often teachers' raises and/or tenure decisions are based in LARGE part on student evaluations and you have a clear recipe for easy grading. good thing you're not granted tenure based on your "hotness" score. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yukon Cornelius Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wiegie Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 (edited) good thing you're not granted tenure based on your "hotness" score. ahem, I did get at least one hotness votes (of course them some other student wrote: "I don't know why anybody would find him attractive, he's just a pudgy little guy." Although my all-time favorite comment about me was "He's sort of a dick, but that's just his personality." Edited June 21, 2011 by wiegie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Country Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 ahem, I did get at least one hotness votes (of course them some other student wrote: "I don't know why anybody would find him attractive, he's just a pudgy little guy." Although my all-time favorite comment about me was "He's sort of a dick, but that's just his personality." You are what you eat, NTTAWWT. On a serious note, when I met wiegie, he was not a dick at all.... a bit of a Showtime Rotisserie, but definitely not a dick. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SEC=UGA Posted June 21, 2011 Author Share Posted June 21, 2011 ahem, I did get at least one hotness votes (of course them some other student wrote: "I don't know why anybody would find him attractive, he's just a pudgy little guy." Although my all-time favorite comment about me was "He's sort of a dick, but that's just his personality." Tangent - In one of my managerial accounting classes I had a professor that was rumored to be a complete and utter d-bag... The first day of class we go in to receive the syllabus, get an intro to the class and the professor. He starts out: Prof: "I know many of you have heard that I am an ass hole, well, I just want to confirm this by showing you some examples of my student reviews." Puts on slide show: First Page - Dr. Barden is an ass hole. He is an arrogant prick that makes the class more difficult than necessary simply to show you how smart he is. Second Page - This guy has a serious inferiority complex and makes up for it by being obnoxious, unhelpful and aloof. Third Page - Dr. Barden is a dick. etc... Well, I know how people fill out these surveys, someone had been wronged, didn't carry their load, didn't approach him for help, etc... and they suffered for it. He starts speaking after the slide show. Prof: "This is going to be the toughest class you've ever taken in your life. I'm not going to sit around and baby sit you, you either learn it or you don't, I don't care. If you don't understand the subject matter you probably don't deserve to be here...." I thought, well, ok, I know where he stands, let's rock and roll. That evening I looked up his grades on line, they post the break out of grades, without names, from the previous semester. In this same class he had 86 students (divided among three classes): 2 A's, 12 B's, 40 something C's and the rest D's and F's.... His tests were nothing like the work we did, he would give you the surface and then pop out a test, usually 5 to 7 questions on two case studies, and basically have you analyze the whole thing... Fine and dandy but, especially on the first exam (of 3), you were pretty much caught off guard. That and he would pick out the most obscure, detailed and minuscule things for you to find (exams would take upwards of two to three hours.) Well, a couple weeks before the final, teetering on B/C, I called him to schedule an appointment to go over a couple of things I was a bit fuzzy on and had a good feeling were going to be on the exam. He scheduled the appointment. When I showed up to his office, he wasn't there ( I was a bit early, no biggie.) Sat there and waited, 3:00 hit, no professor, 3:15, 3:30, 3:45 he comes walking in with a sack from KFC... Prof: Hey, good you're still here, come on in. Me: Thank you. We sit down, he looks at the clock, 'Ok, what can i help you with?" I lay out the two questions, it was from an audit on John Deere... Prof: "You might want to shorten the questions, I told you I had until four and it will take longer than 15 minutes to help you through this..." Me: "Ummmm, ok, well how but we just go over this." Prof: " Ok" he grabs the P&L out of my hand and starts pointing at things and talking about 9000 MPH, going back and forth between the pages, putting numbers here and there, etc... "Do you understand what I just did?" Me: "Well, where did you come up with, this number because...: Prof: "Look, i just showed you, it isn't that complicated. Maybe you just don't get it, fine. But I've got to go in about five minutes and I just don't have the time to hold your hand through all this." Me: "Look, I called you two weeks ago, set up an appointment for 3:00, you said you had to be somewhere by 4:00, so that would have given me an hour." Prof: "Some things came up and now I have to leave. Have a good day." Me: The final was a beast, three hours, the only C I made in grad school... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azazello1313 Posted June 21, 2011 Share Posted June 21, 2011 You are what you eat, NTTAWWT. wiegie eats horse meat, apparently with a side of pudgy little arrogant men who talk too fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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