Comments on: The Grade Inflation Whirlwind

By: Martin

Martin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 14:29:58 +0000

Aoife, I agree that grade inflation is a side-issue, but it could actually be driven by improved student quality (i.e. more motivated students). As well as different institutional structures and improvements in technology:

http://gearybehaviourcenter.blogspot.com/2010/03/grades.html

By: Conan

Conan — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:41:09 +0000

Much of the talk has been about second level and primary degrees but I’ve seen little mention of the post graduate area. I taught for a few years at post graduate level in the Arts/Humanities and the standard of MA candidates was incredibly poor, despite most of them having achieved 2.2 or better in their primary degree. The writing/composition ability of 75% of the students wouldn’t have earned them honours in English in the Leaving Cert. pre 1980.
The attitude of the university seemed to be ‘they’ve paid their fees so they’re getting their MA.’ As a result the good students were getting a debased qualification.

By: Aoife Citizen

Aoife Citizen — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 14:54:25 +0000

What is irritating about this fandango is the underlying idea that the problems with Irish education can be solved with some simple new measure, a measure which the sector itself has been too foolish to adopt. There is no such simple answer: the problem, in so far as there is one, is with the quality of students and with their education, grade inflation has little to do with that. However, improving education is a long and complex process involving, for third level, better resources and more independence to institutions and for secondary and primary schools, measures that would be opposed by teaching unions.

How much simpler to whip up a crisis and solve it all in four weeks and solve it in a way that further confuses and undermines the meaning of the Universities Act, the real target of the ministers abrupt and confusing actions.

By: 200 Words » Archives » Going Up

200 Words » Archives » Going Up — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 01:56:44 +0000

[...] Mark Coughlan does a good job outlining the events of the past week, with reports in the papers apparently confirming grade inflation. Coincidentally, I was googling on the topic around the same time Mark was writing his article. [...]

By: steve white

steve white — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 19:47:20 +0000

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2010/0306/1224265696868.html

It was in Barrow Street last December that the Minister for Education, Batt O’Keeffe, was alerted to the full extent of the grade inflation crisis. The meeting was convened by Google vice-president John Herlihy and others present included Jim O’Hara of Intel and Martin Murphy of Hewlett Packard.

although its seems the minister is doing what he’s been told rather the being at the forefront

By: Mark Coughlan

Mark Coughlan — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 13:55:56 +0000

Thanks for the comment. Look forward to your thoughts.

I’m sure it is possible to put together a meta-survey of some sorts but that wouldn’t constitute a pair of major inquiries. Nor, as far as I know, has there been a report done on this subject at leaving cert level. My understanding was the LC was based on a correction curve, meaning every year X% got A1 X% got B2 and so on. And that the exam papers were tested and correction booklets designed to continue that process over years…

I may, of course, be incorrect.

By: Gerard Cunningham

Gerard Cunningham — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:33:01 +0000

I did some googling on this topic this evening, looking for the report (or is it reports by now?) published by Battt O’Keeffe this week. no sign of the reports themselves, but I did come across several other papers on the same topic. There’s even a website: http://www.stopgradeinflation.ie/papers.html. There are papers there going back five years.

I’ve still to put my thoughts together in an article, but I suspect there’s quite an amount of work done on this topic, and not all of it that recent. I suppose it’s possible a quick meta-survey of the research to date was completed using data already collected.