The Strata of Students

I'll begin with a disclaimer: I'm a grade grubber. Well, more exactly, I'm a perfectionist. Anything less than my best—and anything that doesn't exceed others' expectations of me—is unacceptable. This, of course, transfers to academics: what would represent my work ethic better than a 4.0?

Ironically, as an educator, I realize that As are far more common than they ought to be. At the college level, too many students expect As—Bs if they slack off. Cs are considered below average.

But, as my syllabus states, Cs are average. Bs are good. As are excellent. And I hold them to it.

Last week, I gave the first exam in my grammar 200 class. It was an open-book exam, and the grades ranged from 39 percent to 86 percent. Because there were no As, I scrutinized my test: were my standards too high? Were there any questions that were ambiguous or inadvertently evil?

No, I decided. Many of the errors students made suggested they did not have an understanding of the concepts worthy of an A—none of them excelled in the content. Some of them were good, and they earned Bs. Because Bs are good.

The students, however, don't follow my logic. To them, An A is good, B is average (as in "others are average, but I'm not"), and C is unthinkable. And excellent? An A without effort.

So maybe it's time to reassess our means of assessment. As a teacher and a student, I've found that lowering standards doesn't help students succeed—it creates the illusion of success while ill preparing students for the challenges ahead.