Your School Is F-ing You, Ep. 5: Does “grading on the curve” make grading more objective? (spoiler: no!) cover art

Your School Is F-ing You, Ep. 5: Does “grading on the curve” make grading more objective? (spoiler: no!)

Your School Is F-ing You, Ep. 5: Does “grading on the curve” make grading more objective? (spoiler: no!)

Listen for free

View show details

About this listen

“Grading to the curve” is bullshit. Why do we do it? Because, like “standardization”, it holds out the promise of making educational measurement scientific. But when you scratch under the surface, you see that this promise is empty. We don’t need the curve, and we don’t need to make grading scientific.

Kulick, George and Wright, Ronald (2008). "The Impact of Grading on the Curve: A Simulation Analysis," International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: Vol. 2: No. 2, Article 5.

Bresee, Clyde W. (1976). On "Grading on the Curve", The Clearing House , Nov., 1976, Vol. 50, No. 3 (Nov., 1976), pp. 108-110.

Grant, Adam. “Why we should stop grading students on a curve”, New York Times, 11/9/16.

Kahneman, D., O. Sibony and C.R. Sunstein (2021). Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment. New York, Little Brown Spark.



This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit yourschoolisfingyou.substack.com
No reviews yet
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.