CCDE 110

Summer 2020 Diagnostic

Instructions:

1. Summarize “College Students Need to Toughen Up, Quit Their Grade Whining” by Robert
Schlesinger.

2. Clearly state your position (thesis) in response to the issue or problem presented in the
reading.
3. Support your position with your reasoning and specific examples drawn from your own
experience and observation as well as from examples in the reading.
4. Organize your ideas carefully.
5. Write clear sentences that use standard grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
6. Cite source material in APA format both in-text and at the end of your summary and
response

“College Students Need to Toughen Up, Quit Their Grade Whining” by Robert Schlesinger
If you didn't see it, check out yesterday's New York Times piece on grade inflation and college
student expectations these days. It'll make you cringe. Unless of course you happen to be a
student, in which case it may make you seethe. Or roll your eyes. If you're 30-something or
older, this—from a University of Maryland professor—probably strikes you as a fair grading
standard: "I tell my classes that if they just do what they are supposed to do and meet the
standard requirements, that they will earn a C," he said. "That is the default grade."
This is the way things were when I was a student, grade school through college: Do an adequate
job, get a C; do an above average job, get a B; do a spectacular job, get an A. At least that's
what I was told—I can't claim a great deal of experience with that last category. Things, I can
tell you, have changed.
A recent study by researchers at the University of California-Irvine, found that a third of
students surveyed said that they expected B's just for attending lectures, and 40 percent said
they deserved a B for completing the required reading. If B is the new C, maybe we should add
a new letter to symbolize something better than A. In any case, there are a whole confluence of
factors at work here, but one is particularly intriguing:
James Hogge, associate dean of the Peabody School of Education at Vanderbilt University, said
"Students often confuse the level of effort with the quality of work. There is a mentality in
students that 'if I work hard, I deserve a high grade.' " In line with Dean Hogge's observation are
Professor Greenberger's test results. Nearly two-thirds of the students surveyed said that if
they explained to a professor that they were trying hard, that should be taken into account in
their grade.
Well ... I don't have a problem with effort being a factor at the margins. Knowing that a student
put a great deal of effort into a paper has in my experience pushed a borderline grade into the
higher category. But the larger point is important: effort is not a substitute for results.
"I think putting in a lot of effort should merit a high grade," University of Maryland senior Jason
Greenwood said. "What else is there really than the effort that you put in?"
There's the result of the effort. Students should work hard. And hard work generally begets
better results than does sloth. But should someone who works harder but produces an inferior
product get a lower grade than the startlingly bright student who can coast to an A? And how
does one measure "hard work" anyway? One person's long slog is another's routine. There's a
reason why someone coined the phrase "A for effort"—because the actual grade is something
else.
This broad discussion matters for two reasons. First, if one accepts grade inflation, if B becomes
the standard of basic adequacy, it severely degrades the feedback inherent in grading. And
second, this means that students get an unreal sense of their work, which ill serves them when
they leave the cozy confines of college and university. Entering the real world with an
inaccurate sense of their abilities and a feeling that their work should be judged by their own
estimation of how much effort it involved only bodes for troubles ahead. I enjoy teaching, but I
find the systemic grade inflation enormously frustrating in large part because it ends up
undermining the students.

https://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2009/02/19/college-students-need-to-
toughen-up-quit-their-grade-whining