Grades and Responsibility in Academia

In academia, particularly higher education, examinations are the standard method of ensuring that a professor’s pupils are learning. The grades of these examinations, often measured on a 10-point scale, usually fall within a standard bell curve distribution. In this bell curve, a majority of students receive marks around a low B or high C. This is the ideal distribution, and particularly hard classes offer a standard “curving” method where points are added to every score to ensure that this bell curve is met. In this ideal distribution, the standard deviation is low, ensuring that the test was fair and that the students are comprehending and absorbing the covered material.

Whenever this bell curve isn’t met, both sides of the classroom—i.e., both students and professors—should be worried. Students should be always worried because it affects their grade, which is extremely important in the short term, because it affects scholarships, major progression, graduation, etc. Moreover, a poor grade can also present one of two scenarios to the student: either that they aren’t spending enough time on the class or that the professor is failing to educate them. In either case, there are adjustments the student must make to be successful in the class.

At a certain point, however, the professor’s fears should at the very least equal, if not outweigh those of the student. This equilibrium, of course, is when the class test average drops ridiculously low. This point is probably subjective, varying from class to class, but a good measurement would be when the average ≤ 60%. It is at this point that the grade stops reflecting as much on the student and begins to reflect poorly on the professor.

An effective professor would recognize this, and instead of spending time blaming the students, would focus on connecting more with the students and trying new methods of education. Each class, after all, is different, and the same method might not work for every class every time. Conversely, an ineffective professor will spend valuable class time lecturing a class about their inability to comprehend the professor’s instruction and focus on the same failed methodologies, throwing the class into a vicious cycle.

Unfortunately, most professors in academia today don’t qualify as “effective.” Academia has become incentivized by research and grants, and so professors are hired not by their ability to teach but by their ability to bring money to the institution. This is an increasing problem, and most contemporary professors are out of touch with the real world. This negatively affects the quality of education students receive, and thus negatively affects the future.

Therefore, both sides of the classroom have responsibility when it comes to final grades. The student, of course, has the most responsibility. However, there is an equilibrium: At this point, the responsibility is shared, and anything beyond it is when the responsibility for poor performance lies on the professor. This is an obvious problem, and the mere fact that it needs to be stated speaks volumes about the current state of the American higher education system. Even more painful is how obvious the solution is and how little professors past this equilibrium tend to implement any solution at all. There is a growing cancer on higher education, and it’s become metastasized to the entire organization. There is a revolution that is coming, maybe not in the next few years, but if you thought the journalism revolution was bad, just wait.