Push to curve grades angers students
When an online notice about grading policies was posted on Hansung University’s website last month, the outrage among students was palpable. The post declared that classes with less than 14 students would be graded on a curve, rather than with an absolute assessment system.That change, it said, would also be applied to the courses students took through last year’s fall semester.
Jeong, a 22-year-old college student who only gave his surname, said the school’s decision dumbfounded him and his classmates.
“One of the reasons I took the class was because it was based on an absolute-grading system and ensured that 30 percent of course takers would be given an A,” he said. “But now the school is attempting to arbitrarily change the grading policy at the end of the semester.”
The absolute-grading approach is the traditional method of evaluating a student’s performance, where performance in a course is quantified as a percentage of grades.
Contrarily, relative grading, or curved grading, relies on a statistical system to plot the grades of each student on a curve, and the overall performance of the class determines the boundaries for how grades are assigned. Many college students tend to dread classes graded on a curve because good marks are harder to obtain.
A college administrator at Hansung University said the school had no other options following the Ministry of Education’s push to regulate so-called grade inflation. It stated that some colleges deliberately modify their grading system in a way that ensures higher grades for as many students as possible.
The ministry sees the absolute-grading system as one of the main causes for what it perceives to be overrated college scores.
“The ministry imposes the regulation seriously and reflect the results on their evaluation of nationwide colleges,” said Shin Min-cheol, a staff worker at the college.
“We understand students’ anger, and it could have been better if we could inform them in advance. But we decided to change the system because, if we don’t, it can affect the results of the university evaluation for 2014,” Shin said.
The annual assessment identifies which colleges are performing poorly. Last year, the Education Ministry identified 35 underperforming private universities, a move that cuts off all public financial support in 2014. Blacklisted colleges are also barred from participating in any government-led research projects.
The crackdown is part of the government’s push to restructure and reduce the country’s post-secondary education system as the number of students graduating from high school rapidly declines.
The ministry factors in how schools assign grades to their students and gives lower scores if a college contains a higher rate of students with relatively good grades - As, Bs and Cs.
Chonnam National University has taken measures to make sure it avoids low marks on the annual assessment report. The school announced new credit rules that ban students with higher than a C plus from retaking courses. And even if students repeat a course, they cannot receive an A plus.
Several educators have raised concerns about the arbitrary shift.
“Even if schools are worried about increased scrutiny from the Education Ministry, they shouldn’t change their policies during or at the end of the semester,” said Yang Jeong-ho, an education professor at Sungkyunkwan University.
BY LEE SEUNG-HO [ejpark@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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