Dublin Core
Title
"1648* - It’s important to recognize that lots of students who worked really hard and did ...
Publisher
Dear Blueno
Date
March 19, 2020
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PNG
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Text
"1648* - It’s important to recognize that lots of students who worked really hard and did get good grades throughout the semester would be at a massive disadvantage going forward given reasons of accessibility (for example, Zoom isn’t available in some countries), or just because learning remotely and/or in different time zones is a massive barrier to many and not all professors are so accommodating.
Although I understand that some people feel like giving everyone A’s drives up grade inflation and thus decreases the value of their own hard work, it’s also very true that only giving students the option to S/NC courses if they face significant barriers even if they worked really hard before can similarly (and likely to a greater extent) devalue their work. Many of you don’t want to put everyone on S/NC because of this exact reason, and it’s quite ableist to expect that hardworking students would either have to take a lower grade due to the barriers they now face or opt into S/NC for their courses and decrease the “value” of their transcript.
I think the net loss in whatever harm the grade inflation does (I personally doubt employers and grad schools will really look at or judge the measures Brown takes to mitigate the toll of this pandemic on our academic abilities) of giving everyone A’s will be massively offset
by its emotional and academic boon alongside making up for the increased barriers many - if not most - students now face without forcing them to have to choose between a lower grade and “devaluing” their work through S/NC.
In my mind, the most widely appealing solution is to allow students to freeze their grades where they are right now as a representation of their traditional academic performance or unfreeze them if they want to try to raise those grades, but I nonetheless think that giving everyone A’s is already far better than either keeping the system as it is or only giving out extended S/NC deadlines."
Although I understand that some people feel like giving everyone A’s drives up grade inflation and thus decreases the value of their own hard work, it’s also very true that only giving students the option to S/NC courses if they face significant barriers even if they worked really hard before can similarly (and likely to a greater extent) devalue their work. Many of you don’t want to put everyone on S/NC because of this exact reason, and it’s quite ableist to expect that hardworking students would either have to take a lower grade due to the barriers they now face or opt into S/NC for their courses and decrease the “value” of their transcript.
I think the net loss in whatever harm the grade inflation does (I personally doubt employers and grad schools will really look at or judge the measures Brown takes to mitigate the toll of this pandemic on our academic abilities) of giving everyone A’s will be massively offset
by its emotional and academic boon alongside making up for the increased barriers many - if not most - students now face without forcing them to have to choose between a lower grade and “devaluing” their work through S/NC.
In my mind, the most widely appealing solution is to allow students to freeze their grades where they are right now as a representation of their traditional academic performance or unfreeze them if they want to try to raise those grades, but I nonetheless think that giving everyone A’s is already far better than either keeping the system as it is or only giving out extended S/NC deadlines."
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