Sunday’s Virginian Pilot had a story about a Norfolk State University professor who lost his job because he refused to increase the pass rates for his students.
At the end of this semester, Steven Aird will lose his job as an associate professor of biology at Norfolk State University for giving out too many F’s.
[…]
“It goes against our very mission, which is to provide an affordable high-quality education for an ethnically and culturally diverse student population,” [university spokeswoman Sharon] Hoggard said in an e-mail response. She pointed out that NSU is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools, for which it must meet stringent standards.
Aird says he understands, and believes in, NSU’s mission. But he insists that too many of the university’s students are ill-prepared for college-level work. “I really care about my students,” he said. “That’s why I refuse to lower the bar. The objective should be competence, not grades.”
Having taught at ODU, I understand the professor’s frustration with dealing with students who are ill-prepared. I don’t see this as an NSU problem, but rather an overall problem that colleges and universities face. Far too many students are being taught to “take the test” and not to think critically. Poor study habits abound.
Yet I always felt that my role as a teacher was to try to get the students to understand the material. Different students learn differently, and when I was teaching, I’d say things different ways until I saw the lightbulbs go off over every head in the class.
So my question: should the professor have lost his job because he gave too many Fs?
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
That’s a very interesting question with many issues to address. I have mixed feelings because I’ve been on both sides of the question.
As a student, when I switched between History (BA) and English (MA) I had at least one professor who wasn’t interested in teaching me anything. He made it clear that he was trying to weed me out because I didn’t have the foundation in literary critical theory. I ended up dropping his class; I had no choice. I still completed my MA, I just had to recognize this guy as an obstacle, not a teacher and just go around him.
On the other hand, as a manager in professional services firms, I have encountered people who simply were not competent, who had clearly been passed along. I have met CPAs who could not write a business letter and licensed attorneys who could not write the simplest of memos. As a matter of professional judgment, I have had to block their advancement within the firm, at least until they addressed their developmental needs.
I think it must be really difficult as an educator to strike a balance between teacher and gatekeeper. College professor are, in a sense, both. They are there to supervise and participate in a knowledge transfer, but they are also the judges of that process and how effective that knowledge transfer has been. Teachers may want their students to succeed, but they also have a certain duty to protect the public from the incompetent.
Where do you draw the line between those two roles?
I’m so torn on this.
Objectives are given on the syllabus every semester. If students cannot reach the objectives then they SHOULD fail.
On the flip side, I had an extremely slack professor years ago and I felt cheated. “A”s were given out like candy and I did not feel challenged. I felt that I did not get my money’s worth. The professors that I look back and admire are the ones that challenged me.
This professor was reviewed by his faculty council and they felt that he should have his contract reviewed. So- I take that into consideration. So many times students don’t care about learning the material and just want to get through the class. I know there was a student interviewed in this article that appreciated this professor making him work.
I’m completely torn on this, classes should not be “dumbed” down but you are correct- the prof’s job is “to get the students to understand the material”.
I’m friends with the manager of the bookstore here and most of the books that are sold to freshman are refresher books! Students are coming into college NOT prepared.
Who’s to blame? I wish I knew.
It would be one thing if we were talking about art or comparative literature. But we’re not; we’re talking about biology. Many biology majors go on to become doctors or nurses, and I don’t want any doctors or nurses practicing on me if they got into their professional schools with the help of a little grade inflation.
And actually on a broader topic I have been in classes with MA students who didn’t get the foundational theory they needed from their BA classes (such as in RD’s case) and I was happy to see them get weeded out. It wasn’t anything personal, but it detracted from my education to sit and listen to a psychology major tell me about his feelings regarding an essay in lieu of providing a critical analysis of the work at hand. So it’s not just the general public that is being protected by the educator in question–it’s future teachers and competent students who might have to share classroom time with someone who simply is not yet prepared enough to advance to the next level. And trust me, if you don’t get Bio 102, it’s a waste of everyone’s time for you to even bother going to Bio 201.
Huh. Not even a hard question for me, esp. after reading the article. I was alarmed when I first read that there were “seven classes in which 83 to 95 percent of his students got a D or F[.]” For me, that shifted the presumption against the professor – surely that many students can’t be that bad. But then –
So, it’s not just his students that are failing. NSU students are failing across the board in a (as Anonymous correctly notes) fairly objective subject matter area. The difference between his and his colleagues’ grades would appear to come down to a different weighting of final grade components (let me guess – “class participation”?) and good old fashioned grade inflation.
The professor is right, and NSU is wrong. Worst of all, the students are getting screwed by the university. You don’t compensate for poor secondary education by giving students a poor college education. Appalling. If the accreditation body were worth its stamp of approval, they’d be looking into this.
Yeah, MB. When I saw that, there was no doubt in my mind that grade inflation exists. However, I will say that these common exams are not necessarily a barometer of the students’ knowledge. My own experience with them is that they are often drawn from the obscure parts of the textbooks and not from a broader understanding of the subject matter. I call it “testing in the corners.”
I have never been to college, so have figured I really did not have yhr experience necessary to add to this conversation until I came up with this point:
How about adding some real objectivity to the debate? What were the average SAT scores of the students? If the SAT scores approach average or higher, then the failure of the students to pass should be placed directly at the feet of the professor; its a case of either too rigid standards or failure to impart knowledge. If the SAT scores are dismal, then the professor might even win praise for defending the academic standards of NSU.
I’m not sure you really want to to put “real objectivity” and “SAT scores” in the same sentence.
MB,
OK, then what measure would you use to measure objectivity if it is not the SAT scores? I’d be interested in hearing your suggestion.
I have heard arguments that the SAT scores themselves might already have been subjected to some dumbing down.
LittleDavid,
There’s some statistical evidence that minorities underperform on the SAT because of how the writing and reading comprehension sections are designed. I don’t know if I believe that or not, but there’s also some evidence to suggest that lower-class students underperform on the test because they don’t spend as much on test preperation courses from such organizations as Kaplan, or prep materials from groups like the Princeton Review. These courses teach test-taking skills that provide significant boosts to students who possess the intelligence to excel on the test but aren’t necessarily fast enough to do it in the alotted time, and students who fit this description but don’t have the disposable income to invest in these courses are at a disadvantage to similar students from families that can pay for them.
Keeping this in mind, I don’t know the minutia about NSU’s demographics, and I’m sure as hell not going to register with Princeton Review just so I can find out. Broadly speaking, though, minorities are over-represented in the student body compared to the undergraduate population of the state or nation at large, and I also note that more than 60% of students are receiving need-based financial aid (for comparison, only about one in four students at UVA or William and Mary are receiving need-based financial aid, and at Virginia Tech the number is one in three). So I feel like I can safely promise you that there is no way anyone ought to consider a national comparison to the SAT numbers of NSU’s student body to be particularly objective or revealing.
The question, I believe, is not “Should the Professor lose his job?”, but rather, are we [Black Folk] willing to accept the failed state of our primary learning institutions. The students’ performance is not an anomaly, but a reasoned expectation, given their state of readiness. One could easily conclude that the same results should be experienced next semester and year if we don’t address Why This Occurs. While I will not attempt to delve into the impact of Cultural & Socioeconomic factors of learning, it may be simply stated that: We Shouldn’t Expect Anything To The Contrary, as we’ve known that far too many students are ill prepared.
It’s quite bothersome that the obvious conclusion, Ill Prepared Students, as evidenced by Peer Review, leads to a discussion about terminating the Instructors who are forced to confront the issue. NSU has taken the position that it’s credibility [accreditation] will not be tarnished by its Performance.
Please understand that as a Black Man, I empathize with the students’ Daily Struggle to succeed, however, my empathy will never compel me to compromise the futures of my brothers and sisters through Low Expectations.
NSU has long established a track for students who it recognizes as not being On Par, thankfully. As such, incoming students are required to complete classes [after assessment] that are designed to bridge the gap between Primary Education Readiness and Secondary Education curriculum. While this track may result with the student completing his/her degree within a 5 year period, it better ensures that students are viable members of today’s workforce. This should be our goal.
If the Professor were to lose his position, I would completely support any effort on his part to loudly publicize NSU’s apparent commitment to Lower Expectations, and hopefully shame the institution into meeting our Higher Calling.
What I Learned This Week
http://whatilearnedthisweek.wordpress.com/
Right now, a Norfolk State degree is a joke — and a bad one at that. Any employer who is looking at an NSU graduate and an ODU graduate with the same GPA will hire the ODU graduate.
Mouse,
I disagree- I can list many Norfolk State grads who have beaten out candidates from many schools. Recent graduates.
I had friends in the poli sci dept @ Norfolk- very similiar classes, books, et to ODU, VCU, UVA, et.
ODU had some “issues” in recent years and implemented an “Exit writing exam” as a requirement for graduation. Why? Employers were calling the administration here and complaining that these “ODU grads” couldnt write or read very well. No other university in the state has this- even if you are an honors student, it is a requirement!
I hear students complaining about it every single semester!
Maybe that is something NSU could try.
Well, perhaps my information is a bit out of date. But even now, those matriculating to NSU average a 2.7 GPA, and those going to ODU average 3.2. (And the SATs are similarly higher.)
Anonymous:
I will accept that minorities perhaps do not receive adequate preparation for college by our public school system prior to admission to college. I will not accept that a writing and reading comprehension test can be designed to discriminate.
While the wealthy can perhaps “cheat” through preparation for the SAT (is it really “cheating” to study before a test?) I doubt the SAT average is skewed that much as a result.
What I Learned This Week:
While I am not a black man, let me state that I’m with you, at least on this subject.