<p>Hello,</p>
<p>I would like to start this thread to discuss some critical issues that I am seeming to find in the American educational system that need to be addressed. Every time I attend a college/university, I notice one major flaw - there is no accountability. Students are always at the mercy of professors, subjective grading, and even ambiguous assignment criteria.</p>
<p>Just to add to my disdain for the educational system - a friend of mine was asked an ambiguous question on a homework assignment. What is cos(195 degrees)? Seems simple enough, right? The only problem was that there were no parentheses in the possible answers provided, so the only way to arrive at an answer was to go through every iteration of possibilities to arrive at one that might work.</p>
<p>This is just a one-time thing, right? Just a slip up in the system. NO. In my time at university this type of bulls*** was an ongoing problem and is simply unacceptable. Many professors make regaining points lost this way unreasonably difficult and/or impossible. After all, you are just a college student and lucky to simply “be graced by having been accepted at ____ campus.”</p>
<p>This type of thing produces baseless feelings of inadequacy in students which, after chronic exposure, can lead directly to anxiety disorders, extreme stress, and depression (this is not a baseless claim and studies among university students back this up as well). I personally was diagnosed, hospitalized, and was even given ECT for my situational severe depression triggered by this type of chronic stress. I’m not alone. I know several people who have had similar experiences.</p>
<p>TWO people I know had their transcripts lost at CSUCI. Students are forced to sign that if they are dissatisfied with the service provided, even after paying for education, there are no refunds. This type of thing would be unacceptable in almost any other industry.</p>
<p>If you have had similar issues, please voice them now - or even if you disagree. All opinions are welcomed, but problems cannot be fixed until they are recognized, and now that I am out of school, I would like to make the voice of students be heard through actions on my behalf.</p>
<p>I would really like to see this grading system implemented in college classes:</p>
<p>g = (f + a) / (F + a)</p>
<p>g = final grade
f = points earned on final exam
F = points available on final exam
a = points earned on assignments (including homework, papers, midterms, etc. – everything other than the final)</p>
<p>where there are F points available on assignments.</p>
<p>That way:</p>
<p>If you never do anything other than the final, then your grade on the final is your grade in the class.
If you do all the assignments perfectly, then g = 50% + (% on final) / 2, e.g. 70% on final → 85% in class.</p>
<p>Adjust the difficulty of the final, or curve, as necessary.</p>
<p>I like this because it provides constant motivation to do the work (completion of work always improves your grade in the class, and attempting work can never lower it), but it guarantees that an A is always technically possible.</p>
<p>I posted this in another thread and it is relevant here:</p>
<p>Students often switch from STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majors to non-STEM majors, much more often than from non-STEM to STEM.</p>
<p>The most common reason is that first year STEM classes are often artificially difficult due to exams that expect students to fill in gaps in their knowledge on-the-spot and due to curves that put the median grade in the C range. Students see their grades and lose confidence in their abilities, and no one wants a low GPA, so they switch to majors where their peers are earning higher GPAs. This is so common at UCLA that there is a term for it – northern migration – since the campus is roughly divided into a southern half (STEM buildings) and a northern half (non-STEM buildings).</p>
<p>I think it is an education system failure because scientific, technical, and mathematical mastery is supposed to be a trial-and-error process. It is completely normal to misunderstand a foundational concept, try to move onto something more advanced, recognize where the foundation fits in, go back and re-learn the foundation with a new appreciation for its significance, and consequently understand the foundation even better than some other student who got it right the first time. But there is no way to go back and change a past grade to reflect current mastery, so GPA does not actually reflect competence or achievement. It merely rewards the students for whom the curriculum was designed.</p>
<p>Example: students are not allowed to enroll in abstract algebra before passing calculus – even though it is just as feasible to begin with abstract algebra and pick up calculus techniques as you go along – meaning that a student with a knack for quantitative problem solving will get encouraging grades as a freshman and then approach abstract algebra with confidence, while a student with a knack for proofs and logical abstraction will get discouraging grades as a freshman and possibly drop out of mathematics before even getting an introduction to abstract algebra.</p>
<p>Therefore, frustrated STEM students have no external way to validate their efforts unless they have a good relationship with a supportive teacher or mentor. I think the solution is not to inflate grades, but to give students much more flexibility to decide which order to learn things in, and to let them retroactively improve their grades by proving that they have mastered the subject.</p>
<p>I know of one reason why your plan of giving the “power” to the students in terms of course flexibility won’t work: student’s don’t know what is best for them in terms of the knowledge required for a degree. Now, this does not mean professors or advisors know what is best, but I’d give them more credit to them than an entering freshman who feels their knowledge in algebra-based physics warrants them placement in electrical systems. </p>
<p>There are other reasons, but it’s too wordy and I am not invested in this topic. You should really post your thoughts on the STEM education in the engineering forum and see the responses you’ll get there. </p>