The Half of It | Broken by the curve

The Chemistry Department’s policy is to set the class average to a C-plus or B-minus. According to College sophomore Sage Rahm, the mean score in his Biology 121 class was curved to a C or C-plus. Management 101 is curved on a ranking system, awarding letter grades based on how the numerical student scores line up.

Why is it that grades must be adjusted according to how well other students perform?

Curving systems render grading less about individual performance and more about the performance of others. On an ideological level, curved grading is not an individual measure, but an individual measuring-up. Can’t we be graded on a personalized scale instead of a contextualized one?

Curves that adjust scores to a reasonable level are different. For Psychology professor Jonathan Baron, his exams are sometimes “nearly impossible” and other times “trivially easy,” he said. “I can’t predict that very well in advance.” When used to compensate for test difficulty, curves aren’t detrimental.

But what about curves with wincingly small standard deviations?

A Wharton senior who wished to remain anonymous out of fear of academic repercussions reported a standard deviation of approximately three points on his 40-point Management 101 midterm. Insurance 205/805 boasted a standard deviation of five points on a 90-point midterm. In these cases, the standard deviation is small because students scored consistently high on the exam. But these types of curves plunge letter grades with the loss of a meager three (or five) points. Why distort the students’ achievement?

When you’re dealing with small standard deviations, every point on an exam is suddenly endowed with unnecessary significance. And if the added stress isn’t enough, grading on a curve gives students the potential to influence each other’s grades, making for a more competitive classroom.

College House Fellow and History professor Rob Nelson agreed. “Heightening the competitive elements in a course can be very stressful,” he said.

However, Psychology department chairwoman Sharon Thompson-Schill argued that Penn students were prone to being competitive regardless of the grading system. “My guess is that Penn students, in some ways, are selected for being a very competitive lot,” she said. And in a large class, there’s not much individuals can do to influence the curve.

But competitive or not, once standard deviations squeeze students out of higher grades — and once ranking systems set students against each other — what benefits remain?

As an English major, my wrestles with curves have been few and far between. Small classes simply don’t have enough data to flesh out a curve. But from afar, I have to wonder: in an academic world of grade inflation and GPA obsession, is it naive to think that a high score merits an A?

Emily Orrson is a College sophomore from Baltimore, Md. Her email address is orrson@theDP.com. The Half of It appears every other Wednesday.

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