Because we are so short of faculty, I have a section of 30 honors students in my lecture class along with the 500 regular students. Although the 30 also have a recitation with some additional assignments, five-sixths of their grade is based on the same tests, quizzes, and short essay as the other students.
What grading scheme for each group would maintain equity while creating incentives for each group to put forth the maximum effort (a question in mechanism design)?
The honors kids are on average better students than the regular students, but there is a substantial overlap. I decided to make up the grade scale on each test based solely on the regular students’ performance; I then assign the honors grades based on how the honors students would have done if they were in the regular section. This way, the scale for the regular students isn’t raised by the honors students’ performance. The regular students don’t get discouraged and they exert the desired effort; and the honors students aren’t penalized by being compared only to each other (and thus are not penalized for having enrolled in that section). This might reduce incentives for the lazier honors students to exert the maximum effort, but I couldn’t think of a better scheme that solves all the problems I foresaw.
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What about grading normal students relative to one another, and grading the honors students relative to both regular + honors students?
The honors students would have to do a little better than regular students to achieve the same grade, but they would have not to compete solely with one another.
Grade everyone on an absolute scale, then inflate the honors students’ grades by 20%. An honors student who receives a score of 80% on a test gets a grade of 96. A non-honors student receives an 80. Work done by honors students that is not done by regular students requires no multiplier.
20% is an example – another number may be more appropriate. I picked it as it seems the honors students have 20% more work to do for the same class.
As an honors student at the University of Mississippi, I would be sorely disappointed if my honors section was forced to attend the same lecture as the regular section of the class. For me, at least, the primary benefit of honors classes is the increased interaction between students and professors facilitated by the smaller class. Your university and honors program should be ashamed for putting you in this position.
As for grading, would it be possible to integrate more material from the lecture section into the honors’ students recitations section and place more weight on that section? Increased focus on the recitation section would better the honors experience for the students while providing them with an increased incentive to perform at a higher standard.
I always wondered just how much more was taught in honors classes. I was a perpetual C+ student. I worked hard to get that grade in tough classes and slacked off to get that grade in easy classes. There is no doubt in my mind that I would still have been a C+ student if I had taken honors classes.
As a former honor student, I think you have the right of it. And Grant, maybe it’s the era? I’m 33 and I remember almost all classes being graded on a “curve” or “scale.”
Inflated of course. I was a lazy jerk, but I abused the curve with my intelligence to obtain higher grades than I deserved.
As a chemical engineering graduate student, this situation seems similar to when both undergraduate and graduate students are taking the same class. When graduate students take an undergraduate level class, they are graded as the undergraduates, but the course number on their transcript is also that of the undergraduate level. However, often times the same class can be given both an undergraduate and graduate catalog number. From my experience, it is similar to your post in that most of the work is the same but the graduate (or honors, in your case) students will have to do extra more challenging HW problems, write a term paper, give presenations, etc. Often, the undergrads can do that work for extra credit. In any case, it has always been my experience that the undergrads are graded on a curve with themselves and the graduate students are graded on a curve with only themselves. Generally, if the graduate students were graded with the undergrads they would all get A’s without issue and few or no undergrads would get the highest marks since the grads would occupy that part of the curve. My classes have been much smaller than the one in the post, but I see no reason to not grade the honors students only against each other. After all, they are supposed to be the smarter ones and just like for graduate students, so long as everyone does well, the curve (if necessary) can be centered around a higher point than what you might typically use.
Why don’t you just develop some standards. Measure student performance to the standard and give them a corresponding grade. Oh yea, you crazy college professors can’t figure out why students actually need to know. (I’m speaking from the experience of having a 17% as the high average that turned into an A and 13% being the C in one of my college classes) Nobody knew anything when the left that class. They didn’t even know why they got what was correct, correct. What a total waste of time and effort.
Pick a standard. Grade off it. If everyone masters the material, well, good job on a successful job teaching it.
Oh, so the honors students actually are getting more credit for the same course or something like that.
I still wonder whether it’s “fair” to the students to put the honors students in the same class as the others.
Aren’t your lectures the same for both sets of students? & aren’t your lectures the main “value-added” that the university uses to justify charging students so much per credit? (because the number of credits for each class is linked to the amount of lecture time for each class?)
If I was a parent paying for those “honors” students’ credits, I’d be annoyed that the university offered only “regular” lectures and not a separate honors class at all. Don’t know how they can justify this.