Wharton profs get low marks

Four "A"s, one "B," and a "D" -- for teaching. The fourth-ranked Wharton School was the only graduate business school of the nation's top 20 to receive a "D" in any of the six categories that were graded by Business Week in the October 26 issue, which based its scores on questionnaires sent to graduates and recruiters. The "D" grade indicates that the quality of teaching at Wharton, according to graduates' scores, is in the bottom 20 percent of the country's best business schools. John Byrne, a senior writer at Business Week and author of "The Best B Schools," said yesterday that it should come as no surprise that Wharton did so poorly in the teaching category. "This is nothing new about Wharton," Byrne said. "There are superb, excellent teachers at Wharton. But by and large what the "D" reflects is [graduates think] teachers fail to make the grade." "If they could just figure out how to get rid of some of the teaching duds -- which is not real hard -- they would get pushed up real quick," Byrne added. He noted that in the last survey, conducted in 1990, Wharton received a "C" in the teaching category. For the first time, this year's survey incorporates data from surveys conducted in 1988 and 1990. Wharton administrators and professors said they are aware that teaching at the school needs to be improved, but at the same time, they said the methodology of the survey is flawed. "The way they do [the rankings] has a lot of problems," Vice Dean and Director of the Wharton Graduate Division Isik Inselbag said yesterday. "That grade is very misleading." Byrne said that graduates are given a questionnaire and asked to respond according to a scale from one to 10. The scale also includes divisions of poor, average, excellent and outstanding. Some of the questions asked were: · How would you rate the quality and teaching of core courses? · Was faculty available for discussion when class was not in session? · Do you believe the faculty compromised teaching in order to pursue their own reaserch? Inselbag said that graduates marking seven or eight think they are choosing "excellent." But when Business Week tabulates the scores on a curve, that "excellent" translates into a "D." "The distribution is very packed," Inselbag added. He cited Business Week's 1991 survey of executive MBA programs that also gave Wharton a "D" for teaching. Inselbag said data from that survey obtained from Business Week indicated that raw scores for all the schools ranged from 25 to 35 out of a possible 40. Despite a score of 31, Wharton still got a "D," Inselbag said. He added that in the new survey, graduates are rating their individual schools on different "value scales." Current MBA students were also quick to point out similar flaws in the survey. "The way they calculated the rankings is relying on what students think, and that is not necessarily consistent across all MBA programs," second-year student Ellen Yin said yesterday. "It's a very subjective thing . . . each school has a different atmosphere." And first-year MBA student Madoka Imanaka said the "D" grade "might simply mean students here are more demanding." "This is a customer satisfaction survey and nothing more than that," Imanaka said. But while Wharton teaching does not deserve a "D," "teaching could be better," Imanaka added. She said some professors have speaking and presentation problems and others are more concerned about their research. "Maybe they need to go to class themselves to learn how to present better and speak better," Imanaka said. Inselbag said Wharton is addressing the problems with its teachers and added that many improvements have already been implemented. "You can never be content with the level of excellence that you have achieved," Inselbag said. "We have to continuously work on it and we have been working on it since 1988."

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