tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post2845281808528345216..comments2024-03-12T14:31:50.264-07:00Comments on Bits and Pieces: Honor Code Snippets from Cambridge to ColoradoHarry Lewishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17088418333536732728noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post-58790014669965615002014-02-06T18:01:08.126-08:002014-02-06T18:01:08.126-08:00On that Air Force missile exam scandal:
"Ms....On that Air Force missile exam scandal:<br /><br />"Ms. James said that during her visits to all three bases last week, crew members — while not admitting to cheating — told her that they felt pressure to score 100 percent on the proficiency tests. While 90 percent is considered a passing score, they said that their commanding officers would not promote them unless they scored 100 percent."<br /><br />As it stands, everyone gets an A is the same as pass/fail in creating powerful incentives for cheating. Are you going to cheat for the small difference between a B+ and A- in traditional grading? Are you going to cheat for that difference in a grade-inflated system? <br /><br />This is the grade inflation problem in a nutshell, if everyone gets an A, an B+ is quite a cudgel. People don't want to be cudgeled.<br /><br />Since devaluation of the grade currency seems out of the question, the only option is to add additional grades in higher denominations, AA, and AAA. (Is that what happened to Wall Street bond ratings, inflation?) The only way then to prevent another round of grade inflation is to limit the number of AA and AAA grades, with + and -, on a strict percentage basis.Left Bank of the Charleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04494310302328322830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post-30337426757870906822014-02-01T09:17:05.459-08:002014-02-01T09:17:05.459-08:00Fair point. Could be.
Here is a rather more troub...Fair point. Could be.<br /><br />Here is a rather more troubling question along the same lines. Was there a time, when the social class system was better understood and more accepted by everyone, when the upper classes prided themselves on being more honorable than the lower classes? I think of those old stories about the pride people took in "amateur athletics," really the athletics of the British upper classes. Tennis games were played without linesmen and it worked fine -- the aristocrats would tell their opponents about their own foot-faults and so on. Is "honor" really a Victorian anachronism, kept alive on life support by pledges like this? -- Or, on the other hand, were the upper classes always as dishonest as everyone else, except they made a show of honor when social convention demanded it?<br /><br />(Collegiate squash still works that way, I believe, at least for ordinary matches.)<br />Harry Lewishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17088418333536732728noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3116442395849122822.post-68052533651978199462014-01-31T21:31:48.261-08:002014-01-31T21:31:48.261-08:00Whenever I read that cheating has increased (e.g.,...Whenever I read that cheating has increased (e.g., from 28% in 1964 to 65% in 2010) I always wonder how much of that is people being less shy to tell an survey (even an anonymous one) than they used to be. So we might be measuring another phenenomena- people no longer having shame when they cheat. Of course, that would also lead to more cheating.GASARCHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06134382469361359081noreply@blogger.com