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Grrrrrrrrr!
..I am reminded of a grading traumatic experience of my own, involving a famous professor whose curve was the opposite of Prof. Frölich’s.
But first, an aside. Many readers have asked my views on the weird story of Megan Thode, the grad student who sued to have her C+ grade changed, alleging that it was the result of bias and will cost her 1.3 million dollars in lost income. The judge was understandably annoyed at having to decide the case, and has suggested a compromise between the parties to relieve him of the responsibility of perhaps having to change the grade himself. There was no good result possible here. If the school really had a bias against Megan and she could prove it, then the law suite was valid. She shouldn’t have her career disrupted because of unfair grading. If, on the other hand, her grade was within the range of proper discretion, the law suit was a threat to the education system, and had to be be fought until the last dog died. Nor should the school compromise, as it would create a system in which grades have no integrity and where anyone could buy an inflated grade by threatening court action. Ultimately, the judge decided that the grade had to stand. What I see here is an educational system on all levels collapsing from a toxic combination of warped objectives (education for monetary payoffs, not for its own sake) and a dearth of trust in the competence and integrity of the educators.
Now the story of my own disputed C+, starring the renowned Chester James Antieau.
My own grading ethics crisis occurred in law school, when I took Georgetown Law Center’s Local Government Law course, taught by the legendary Professor Antieau, who had literally written the book on the subject, as well as being a constitutional law scholar of international renown. Coming from Arlington, Massachusetts, then as now the largest municipality still using the Board of Selectmen and town meeting system of government, I was interested in the local government field and thought being a town corporate counsel would be fascinating work. Unlike most of my courses, this one got my full attention. I read the assignments, went to all classes, and took detailed notes. (Prof. Antieau was an intellectual freak: he had committed thousands of cases to memory along with their citations, and a simple question was typically answered by a reply like, “Ah yes, a komodo dragon in the back yard contrary to zoning for farm animals. There is a Georgia case involving a monitor lizard at 78 Southeast 2nd at 453, a 1965 case. It’s on point, I think. There is also an interesting British case involving a python.”)
It was a wonderful course, and Antieau was as good as his reputation. When it came to the final exam, which was the entire course grade, I thought I aced it, or at least did very well. I was shocked when I received only a C+, and violating my usual rule of never disputing grades, I asked for a meeting.
“Professor,” I said,”I have to say I was disappointed in my grade. I thought I had done very well. I knew this material. I don’t understand.”
“You did do well, Mr. Marshall; congratulations,” the prof replied. “In my class, a C+ is excellent. The top grade was a B- ! You had one of the four best exams.”
“What?” I said. “How can you agree that I did well and only give me a mediocre grade? In every other class in this school, a C+ is average or worse.”
“I’ve graded this way for thirty years,” he said. “It’s not my concern if the other professors have loosened their standards unconscionably. Mine have remained constant: in my class, an A means you have mastered the material, and could teach it. An A from me is a rare and significant honor, but a C+ still shows excellent understanding.”
“Yes, but Professor, no employer knows that; nobody will know that but you and me. Nobody will know that your C+ is the equivalent of every other law professor’s A-! It places your students at a disadvantage.”
Professor Antieau smiled his “my poor lad, you really are a waif in the woods” smile.
“No, my students are placed at an advantage, because they know that their grades accurately reflect what they know, and show the degree to which they need to improve to reach that level of mastery deserving of a genuine A. Be proud of your C+, Mr. Marshall, but keep striving. And never allow the mob to lower your standards of excellence, just as I refuse to allow my lenient and lazy colleagues to lower mine.”
And that was the day that I decided law school grades weren’t worth worrying about.
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Sources: USA Today, Huffington Post
Ethics Alarms 
I can appreciate your Prof. reasoning, unfortunately for the students of today, there is a bias, and their expectations are that they do no wrong, until they get into the workforce and find there is no position for them at 100k a year for their finite knowledge.
To strive for greatness when only learning to be a soldier you have handicapped yourself before you ever begin the journey.
Sounds like an episode starring John Houseman in, “The Paper Chase.” Life, imitating art.
My own grading –
HD (High Distinction) – in at least some aspects. the student could teach me a thing or two.
D (Distinction) – they could teach the course
C (Credit) – Could work without supervision
P (Pass) – Could work with supervision
F (Fail) – I’ve screwed up. But I teach masters and doctoral students, to get this far they’ve already shown ability and willing.
In High school, I was in a similar situation to this. A basic personality clash with my Geography teacher. Top of the class in exams and external assessments, a string of zeroes for class assignments, putting me well below the next-to-last. Often the teacher wouldn’t read my submitted assignment, just theatrically assign 0 and toss it in the bin. I wasn’t allowed in the classroom after the first week of the semester, I had to listen through the door. It was a ritual – I’d be sitting silently at my desk, he’d walk in and tell me to leave. I’d retrieve my assignment from the bin after class.
When I came 3rd in the state in the external exams, but got a failing grade for the course, the teacher’s contract wasn’t renewed – the situation was reviewed by the headmaster in view of the obvious anomaly, and my grade changed after the headmaster personally re-marked my class notes and assignment submissions. I hadn’t lodged a protest – there was no mechanism for that in those days – internal self-checks detected and corrected it, without scandal or damage to the school.
I will say this,,, before this teacher, I’d been rather lax in the subject. Getting Bs where I got A+’s in everything else. He got my dander up though, and I was determined to prove him wrong. Had he not arbitrarily assigned an F at the end, I might have been willing to believe he was deliberately goading me into reaching my full potential.
I’m sorry, since you seem to be fond of him, but your professor sounds like a self-important twit. Truly mastering a subject implies that you have very little else to learn about it. Clearly, for all but the narrowest of subjects, that’s not going to happen in a single academic semester. So to be meaningful in the context of the classroom, “mastery” has to be defined in terms of what is possible with the time and resources available. If only a tiny handful of students are getting A’s, it’s a sign that the standards have been set unrealistically high.
Also, the role of a university is not only to teach you things, but to certify to others that you have learned those things. Your professor may not like or agree with this, but as long as the university communicates its assessment of your education to others, it owes you a duty of doing so accurately. This includes using a grading system that means what employers and other universities will expect it to mean.
If the university doesn’t like that system, or if the professor wants students to receive feedback that accurately reflects what they know and shows them the degree to which they need to improve, well, there’s nothing stopping him from writing you a note.
No,he was a pompous ass. But he knew his stuff.
Your story goes under the category of grade-inflation. Many older professors continue to grade as they always have and others have inflated their grades beyond all reason. Your professor may actually have been right depending on how widely known he was (my classmates’ 3.5 GPA’s were held in high regard by even Harvard Medical School while other school’s 4.0’s were disdained). Grades also vary widely by area. At UNC, for example, the average grade given in the Education department is 3.8, in the sciences, it is 2.8. Is it because elementary education majors are smarter than physics majors?
The case above is different. It was based on the assignment of in-class participation grades (which are terribly subjective). I hate these types of grades because I like quantitative things, but in many areas, it can be a very important part of the class. With subjective grades, perceived and real unfairness is inevitable. I had it happen in classes that I took in college, everyone has. If each possible case becomes a lawsuit, no education will be possible. In any field that relies on subjective judgment, you have to accept some imperfections. Imagine if every judge’s score in ice skating was subject to a lawsuit.
What I found most interesting in the case was that Ms. Thode presented her case as if earning a C+ in a single class was a terminal and unrecoverable act. This is absolute nonsense, especially if she is telling the truth in her lawsuit. She can apply to another program and complete the requirements for her desired degree away from her ‘evil’ professor and department. It will mean extra time and money, but it is not impossible if she is really capable of doing what she said. Two of my grad student classmates had to do this through no fault of their own (their advisor died suddenly) and I have had several colleagues who had to do this through no fault of their own (UPS lost some irreplaceable samples in one case).
This lawsuit was ridiculous and her father should be ashamed that he participated in it. She may find that there will be repercussions down the road for this (How many grad schools would want to admit someone like this? How many employers want such a lawsuit-happy employee?). Disputed grades are inevitable and there is no perfect way to handle them. This is a good time for Megan Thode to learn that life’s not fair.
Then again, the entire question could be avoided if professors just taught their subject with diligence and demanded diligence from their students in return. Just a grade based on results for the students and a job contract with the professor on the same basis. No curve. No tenure. Welcome, Academia, to a dose of the real world.
This isn’t how the real world works and you know it. How many job evaluations in this country are based on actual facts and have no subjective element in them? Most of them are purely subjective and have little basis of reality in them. Please read “The Dilbert Principle” and “Dogbert’s Secret Management Handbook” for an explanation of how this “real world” works. Just ask yourself how anyone in the financial sector still has a job if this is how the real world works.
Professors are PAID to make judgement calls. That is our job. No one makes judgement calls correctly 100% of the time, however. It is not easy and it takes a lot of knowledge and experience to be good at it. You try to find a way to grade a class of students on “participation” objectively without any judgement interfering. That is like judging the Presidential debates by who spoke the most words in the allotted time or by the percentage or words with 3 or more syllables. You will only be left with superficialities.
@Michael R. – fair points made here. From a computer nerd standpoint, the constants are attendance, homework (more than less degree depending on multiple choice vs essay), and in-class tests. The variables are participation which can be across the board. Sometimes there are students you wish would shut-up once in awhile, and there is just not enough time in the day to record a class to determine who and what was said, not to mention legal and logistical challenges. I still think that it is part of the job of an instructor to be as objective as possible (yeah, lot’s of room here), in determining a student’s effort. Just because it is a formidable task does not mean there should be any room for complacence.
This “reality” is one that you’ve created and institutionalized in the so-called institutions of higher learning. Thus, your adherence to them becomes a deficiency to academia, to your college and, most importantly, to your students. You can’t make sound “judgement calls” when your frame of judgement is skewed to unethical principles.