Nothing new under the sun |

We used to have big laughs around our conference room. Mostly about the devices we were developing. How we had to dumb down our ideas some- because we were a decade or two beyond where the world was- and our clients wouldn’t be able to market those concepts if they were too far away from the general horizon.

But, some things we knew – despite the “radicalness of the concept” would still survive, if not thrive. Our neurosurgical drill, colon electrolyte lavage (after which development allowed colonoscopic exams to proceed- which weren’t even on the horizon at the time), ultraviolet light for irradiating food (to render it microbe-free) and for can coatings… The list of the items discarded is much, much longer.

So, I wasn’t surprised when perusing my Washington Post the other day to run across what they termed a “new concept” – a revolution in grading. Changing to a different point scale, letting kids retake exams (after demonstrating what they did wrong), etc. The goal is to ensure that the student has mastered the subject matter.

The driving force is the leftover sour taste from pandemic shutdowns. Where the students have been disrupted from continuous, positive learning experiences over the past two years. Discerning how students can be motivated to learn and retain information. The idea is that the grade should manifest learning- not behaviors.

And, the article went on to say that college programs are even less forgiving than the standard public school grades. There are no do-overs. No reassessments. There is no motivation, no instillation of ownership of the learning process.

Except…

The last time I was a professor was more than two decades ago. And, that was after some two decades of teaching. And, my philosophy was simple.

It made no difference if the student mastered the subject matter as I offered my four or five one hour exams during the course term. (Unless someone brought in a doctor’s note, there was no excuse for missing an exam.) It made a big difference if they mastered the subject matter by the end of the term.

So, that’s how I ran my classes. I graded each exam. And, then for the final (which was 3 hours maximum), I divided the exam into four or five parts. One for each of the previous exams.

And, that’s where it got interesting. Anyone who scored 92 or higher on an exam was exempt from that section on the final. Anyone who scored 85 or better could stick with that grade and skip that section. I graded the four or five sections separately.

And, for each section, I chose the higher grade. Averaged them out and provided myself a half-grade option based upon class performance and homeworks. (One could go up ½ grade – or down ½ grade from the test averages.)

And, after some student activism, I was made a member of the curriculum and standards board of Brooklyn Poly more than 5 decades ago. One of the first pieces enacted by the committee was the ability of a Poly student to retake a course for which he (we were 99.99% male at the time) received a D. And, if the grade, on subsequent retaking allowed him to earn a B or better, the original D was expunged.

Just like these folks are doing now, thinking they have developed something new.