Numbers Games: The Great SAT and Grade Inflation Scams
Numbers Games: The Great SAT and Grade Inflation Scams
Recently, I discussed some guidelines for navigating claims about education evidence to inform education reform, specifically how research is framed in those claims. In the weeks following this piece, hand-wringing about dropping SAT scores have been joined by charges of grade inflation within teacher education—both of which highlight that we remain trapped in numbers games that insure we are all destined to lose in the long run.
First, Rick Hess at his Education Week blog, Straight Up, offered three consecutive posts [HERE, HERE, andHERE] claiming that teacher education is a failure based on his charges of grade inflation:
First, Rick Hess at his Education Week blog, Straight Up, offered three consecutive posts [HERE, HERE, andHERE] claiming that teacher education is a failure based on his charges of grade inflation:
“There are perennial concerns about the rigor and quality of teacher preparation. These have become so familiar that ed programs have taken to shrugging off the critiques as uninformed or anecdotal….Turns out that ed faculty are much more generous when it comes to grading.”Claims of grade inflation have existed for a century (or more), leading me to wonder when the golden age of
