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[anthroid]

I am back =)

I have been reading the posts these past couple of days, feeling encouraged by how some of you are defending me (thank you!), but also a bit distressed that there might be anyone here who could try to determine my ID in order to harm me in real life. And all this because of an unwise reaction I had to what was, I must say, a very unpleasant personal attack against me by a person who seemed to be having a bad day...

My husband was pondering setting up a profile here to smooth things over with anyone who might have been hurt or angered by me... no need, course! All water under the bridge, as they say.

Polenta, I wasn't having a particularly bad day (though the last few weeks have been quite stressful), though it is very generous of you to say so.  However, I could have said things differently, and in a less confrontational and more helpful tone.  For putting things too bluntly, I do apologize to you.  I was out of line.  I think Conjugate has read what I meant to say quite accurately, though I did not say them well.  I do not know who you are, though, as I said (and has been summarized, again accurately, by Conjugate), you have provided enough hints to a search committee member to be able to guess at who you are.  I am not running any searches for an anthropologist this year; my current institution does not have an anthropology department, but this is probably not the very last place I will work and the chances are very good in the next few years that I will be searching for a cultural anthropologist as I have done in the past.  I think I really was intending to warn us all about revealing too many details here.  I suspect I am not as successful about that as I would like, given the fact that my discipline is a small one.

However, I said everything quite clumsily and unpleasantly, particularly after the PMS remark, and I have been regretting those latter posts of mine ever since. 

I apologize for my part in this trainwreck, to Polenta to be sure, but also to the forum at large.  I seem to do something like this every year or so.  I am sorry.

[cc_alan]

The mandates are maximums, so up to 30% can get As, but it can be less.

It makes it impossible because in a class of 30 students I cannot give more than 9 students an A. I'm usually a generous grader, so I want to give more As than that, hence the system makes it impossible for me to inflate the grades. It keeps me honest, I must admit, although I can easily see the system working unfairly to punish some students because their peers are bright and hard working.

Ah. I get it. Your post (and womanofproperty's) clicked.

I was thinking that this strategy could easily result in bringing up grades but I didn't think of them as a maximum and used to keep professors from assigning all As, for example.

Alan

[daniel_von_flanagan]

Of course, if there is really a letter grade-by-letter grade maximum, then there is a strong possibility that many students won't get grades at all.  (If you fill all your F/D/C/B bins to the max, and only assign half your allotted number of As, then the rest are in grade limbo.)

I assume then that the maxima are on letter-or-above counts.  This thread suggests that in some departments/institutions in the US we have instead de facto letter-or-below count maxima. - DvF

[grasshopper]

I think I really was intending to warn us all about revealing too many details here.  I suspect I am not as successful about that as I would like, given the fact that my discipline is a small one.

Heh.

"Poo".


Without the (sometimes revealing) details, not only would these boards be unbearably boring, but we wouldn't know enough to give measured and helpful advice.

[cc_alan]

Of course, if there is really a letter grade-by-letter grade maximum, then there is a strong possibility that many students won't get grades at all.  (If you fill all your F/D/C/B bins to the max, and only assign half your allotted number of As, then the rest are in grade limbo.)

I assume then that the maxima are on letter-or-above counts.  This thread suggests that in some departments/institutions in the US we have instead de facto letter-or-below count maxima. - DvF

This is a new experience for me (as in reading other people's experiences like this) and I've never been pressured by admin or had basic breakdowns given to me either as a TA or as an instructor. OK, my count is only n=3 (TA, 2 colleges as a FT instructor) so I'm not suggesting my experience is all-encompassing.

Alan

[kedves]

Of course, if there is really a letter grade-by-letter grade maximum, then there is a strong possibility that many students won't get grades at all.  (If you fill all your F/D/C/B bins to the max, and only assign half your allotted number of As, then the rest are in grade limbo.)

I assume then that the maxima are on letter-or-above counts.  This thread suggests that in some departments/institutions in the US we have instead de facto letter-or-below count maxima. - DvF

I think most schools care about F/D percent, and some care about A percent, but the B and C range is usually treated as the place most grades belong.

I didn't have much guidance about grades when I started working at my current job, although there had been some concern in the past that too many A's were being given in the intro course, which is taught by a variety of people.   I looked around online for grade distributions.  Mine is modeled on the University of Iowa's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences distribution.  That's a much bigger and better school than mine, but one that seems to be concerned about minimizing grade inflation.  The school at which I started teaching had excellent students but no grade guidelines, so I was free to give as many A's and A-'s as I liked.  I would have had to make very fine-tuned tests and assignments to knock more of those students down a grade.  

Here, I am grading a much wider range of student work and no +/- grades.  It's not hard to sort them into grades, but it can be hard to remember to give enough A's and B's.  That's where the model grade distribution helps me--it reminds me to keep my expectations reasonable.  Some of my A students could get an A anywhere, but after their work, there is a big drop to the next level.

If I gave 30% of my current students an A, I would double or triple the number of A's I give.  I wonder what would happen to my teaching evaluations.  I don't know what the grade distributions of other people in my department look like.  My chair has praised mine, but I don't know if that's because they are typical or unusual.

[der_gadfly]

...

A department head who bullies has other problems, and they may simply be taking it out on you. When I have a bad day, or get some crap from my boss, I usually make a comment on my way out  to the effect that "Thank you so much! I will definitely try harder. When I get home, I am going to go kick my cat!"...

Please-please-please tell me you don't actually say this!  If you said this at my institution, you would be run out... guess we're all just a bunch of animal lovers (many faculty and staff volunteer at the Humane Society).  I think it is inappropriate to even joke about.

I would love to see someone try to run me out for being a wiseguy to an over-bearing boss.....

As for it being inappropriate to even wax humorous over this, well, the simple fact that it upsets someone else is more than ample reason to do it, repeatedly in fact!