What to do?

LegacyUser

I'm lecturing parttime for one of the biggest universities in the country (won't mention which).

The course director has instructed us to use provided guidelines to grade a final assignment.

Fair enough.

However we have been told our marking will not be accepted if we grade our classes with over 50% A or fail grades. There has been a veiled threat made that if we don't follow these guidelines that our timesheets for the last month in the semester won't be processed.

Most of us have marked our classes with around 80% A grades. We have been asked to revise downwards.

Is this fair? Is this acceptable? It might be the difference between a 2.1 and a first for a lot of students.

uck51js9zml2yt

You really need to talk to your union about this.

What reason were you given for this request? Was it verbal or written?

jimmycrackcorm

whatshouldido2015 wrote:

Most of us have marked our classes with around 80% A grades. We have been asked to revise downwards.

I think its absolutely fair as our education system has been rightly criticised for demeaning grades.

whatshouldido2015 wrote:

Is this fair? Is this acceptable? It might be the difference between a 2.1 and a first for a lot of students.

What's the value in everyone getting a first?

Roselm

There is supposed to be a bell curve and while that doesn't seem fair you could say that if a huge number are getting firsts then the test was too easy...

TimeToShine

It makes perfect sense, and IMO the only problem here is that the threat had to be veiled an cannot be made abundantly clear.

What's the point in every Tom, Dick and Harry getting an A? It devalues the material you teach, the university reputation and the calibre of graduate we are churning out.

Dee01

TimeToShine wrote: »

It makes perfect sense, and IMO the only problem here is that the threat had to be veiled an cannot be made abundantly clear.

What's the point in every Tom, Dick and Harry getting an A? It devalues the material you teach, the university reputation and the calibre of graduate we are churning out.

But if the student genuinely got an A due to the work they produced, why should they be marked down? It shouldn't matter how many A grades have come before their paper or after their paper.

ivytwine

Dee01 wrote: »

But if the student genuinely got an A due to the work they produced, why should they be marked down? It shouldn't matter how many A grades have come before their paper or after their paper.

Sorry but 80% of the class are not churning out A material.

OP I'm not an academic but I'm educated up to masters level. My 2.1 was hard got through hard work in my final year, I freely admit I was lazy and not farsighted before then. Students know, and should always know, that failure is a possibility. I failed one module in my undergrad and it was horrible. I'm glad I did tho because it shook me into action and I salvaged my degree.

Don't worry about your students, do your job; your job is to grade them properly, and unless you have an *exceptionally* bright and hardworking class, that's not 80% As.

Addle

Don't they do this in the leaving cert too?