OpenInquiry @InquiryOpen

A new New Zealand online outlet dedicated to open inquiry and the pursuit of knowledge, and edited by a consortium of leading Kiwi scientists and scholars. openinquiry.nz Joined August 2022

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Rob Henderson @robkhenderson

a week ago

"In 2011, 60 percent of all grades at Harvard were in the A range (up from 33 percent in 1985). By the 2020–21 academic year, that share had risen to 79 percent. Students were more anxious than ever, so professors further eroded norms to help them." theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

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Pete's lenz @RightLenz

a week ago

@Kleisthenes2 Well done. Having worked in postgraduate education, this is not news to me. What always surprised me is the number of graduates who failed our competency based tests, yet achieved good grades in their undergraduate degrees. Some could barely construct an English sentence.

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James Kierstead @Kleisthenes2

6 days ago

@BrandonLukeMc @sfmcguire79 Here's a piece I cite in my report. It reports that just under 80% of all grades at Harvard and Yale in 2022-23 were in the A range. yaledailynews.com/blog/2023/11/3…

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Steve McGuire @sfmcguire79

a week ago

“They were cracking up not simply because grades had gotten so high but because they knew just how little students were doing to earn them.” Harvard faculty recognize that grade inflation has become absurd:

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Psycho Milt @psycho_milt

a week ago

@InquiryOpen @Kleisthenes2 ...of hearing "right-wing voices" at a NZ university. The answer to her question "Can the modern University be the place where robust, relevant debate can happen?" is a flat "No" when it comes to some subjects.

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Attic Inscriptions @atticins

10 months ago

Today we publish our latest set of Attic #deme inscriptions, covering: Phegaia, Prasiai, Phrearrhioi, Phyle, & Plotheia, plus the trittys of Epakreis, and the herm of Hipparchos. For a full list: atticinscriptions.com/browse/bypubli…

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Damien Grant @damienmgrant

a week ago

Our universities are handling out better grades and worse students. Handing out As as freely as Ritalin and puberty blockers. What's going on? stuff.co.nz/nz-news/360806…

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The NZ Initiative @nzinitiative

a week ago

🎙️Are NZ university grades losing their meaning? In our new podcast, @oliverhartwich talks with @Kleisthenes2 about rising A grades, COVID spikes, and what grade inflation means for students and employers. 🔗 Listen here: tinyurl.com/3wywntrj

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James Kierstead @Kleisthenes2

7 days ago

@YeahNahFineThen @EricCrampton Thanks. Here's the webinar here for anyone else who's interested: youtube.com/watch?v=dlX8z6…

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Eric Crampton @EricCrampton

2 weeks ago

From @Kleisthenes2's report on grade inflation. nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-and-me… Herald on it here: nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/mo…

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Eric Crampton @EricCrampton

2 weeks ago

Law has been best overall in avoiding grade inflation. Business & Econ next, but that jump in 2020's a worry.

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David Rozado @DavidRozado

a month ago

The degree of flattery in AIs' comebacks when confronted with user pushback varies markedly between different models. In some systems, it appears in around 10% of responses; in others, it exceeded 50%. Newer models, such as GPT-4.1 or Claude 4-sonnet, tended to flatter users more…

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James Kierstead @Kleisthenes2

a week ago

24. Luckily, while the UK and US have hundreds and thousands of universities respectively, New Zealand has only 8, so it should be possible to tackle grade inflation here - if we are willing to take on ingrained habit, shoddy systems and vested interests within the universities

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James Kierstead @Kleisthenes2

a week ago

23. In the end, grade inflation really has to be tackled at the national level, as any university that deals with it might then have trouble attracting students (unless that university's more prestigious than any university in New Zealand).

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James Kierstead @Kleisthenes2

5 years ago

6/But this leads us to the second issue I mention above: the issue of definition. What counts as a democracy? It's interesting to read G&W's thoughts alongside those of Egon Flaig, whose book on the history of decision-making takes a similarly global view. brill.com/view/title/508…

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James Kierstead @Kleisthenes2

a week ago

22. to one of fairness, in which all students are treated equally irrespective of what classes they've taken, and in which academics use grades to honestly and accurately record student performance rather than as a way of making sure student numbers stay up.

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James Kierstead @Kleisthenes2

a week ago

21. The final way we could combat grade inflation is by changing the culture around grading from a culture of 'kindness' that is really only kind to the individual student whose performance you're misrepresenting (but cruel to all the other students),

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James Kierstead @Kleisthenes2

a week ago

20. These would be kind of like exams at Oxford or even Cambridge, where instructors compete to prepare students for university-wide exams marked by independent groups of examiners.

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James Kierstead @Kleisthenes2

a week ago

19. The second approach to mitigating grade inflation involves changing the incentives that fuel grade inflation. One idea here is to separate grading from instructing, either through cross-marking or by having nationwide exams in certain subjects.

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James Kierstead @Kleisthenes2

a week ago

18. GPAs could also be automatically adjusted to take into account how hard (or easy) the courses a student chose were. Systems exist that do this - here's a story about maybe the most sophisticated technique of this sort: x.com/Kleisthenes2/s…