Carol Cruz Summary

In his essay “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s”, Brent Staples argues that many colleges have less vigorous grading rubrics than in years past because of the increase in student-consumers. Consequently, this “new” grading policy has led to an increase in A’s that are awarded to students. A few factors have led to this unfair distribution. Firstly, students who earn high grades in poorly attended classes assure that these classes will remain viable in the future. Secondly, high grades guarantee the presence of student consumers at a college {REWORD}. Additionally, the tenure status or salary of a professor may be affect if (s)he does not give out high grades to students, leading to disapproving evaluations.

In the twenty-first century, there is heavy competition between colleges. Unfortunately, the ideal theory of the free market economy does not exist in the real world, because no one actually values quality. Most consumers never care about quality nor do they have the time to inform themselves; they only care about convenience. In other words, they will likely prefer inferior products. As a result, colleges have been competing in a downwards spiral of education quality. In his essay, “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s,” Brent Staples criticizes colleges for inflating grades through comparing and contrasting, exemplifying, analyzing cause and effect, and making an argument.

The summary I will be writing about is the Victor Cruz story. The main claim of the story is basically how Victor Cruz had a bad start as a college kid. Cruz flunked out of UMass and went to a small community college in Bridgton Academy, After a couple of years, Cruz had overcome a couple of obstetrical to get back in the University of Massachusetts , were he became a great college wide receiver, After his senior year of college at UMass, Cruz entered the NFL draft and was signed by the New York Giants as a undrafted Free Agent in the year of 2010. Cruz is know known today as one of the NFL top wide receivers.

While college education has always had the reputation of being difficult, it has steadily become easier. This isn’t based on the course load or information; simply, it is easier to achieve high grades. In fact, “Campuswide averages have crept up from a C just 10 years ago to a B-plus today” (Staples). Brent Staples, in his article “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s”, successfully illustrates the concerns with grade inflation. Grade inflation is a complex situation affecting universities which leads to less legitimate degrees.

In sports, investigators utilize individual records or diversion measurements to analyze competitors. In this manner, groups utilize those estimations make discovering players a great deal less demanding. In like manner, grades measure an understudy's capacities, qualities, and shortcomings in the classroom. In Paul Goodman's passage entitled "A Proposal to Abolish Grading," he contends that Ivy alliance Universities ought to annul grades. His reasons are that understudies organize tests instead of discover significance to new learning. In the event that evaluations are canceled understudies will have the capacity to take in the material without the anxiety. Despite the fact that Goodman unequivocally concentrates on renowned schools, is an issue that worries each school. For it makes one wonder if grades are truly essential to quantify an understudy's capacity to learn. Goodman trusts that the present understudies will just do what is insignificantly required for them to pass their class. From my own understanding, understudies that are staggeringly decided and discover reason in acquiring new information are the ones with the most noteworthy imprints. I trust that understudies that apparent in classes they don't discover agreeable have a superior possibility of getting acknowledged into great schools and employments. It is as though the individual is stating " I will pick up anything and exceed expectations at it." what's more, educators can utilize evaluations to select

In the essay “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s” the author Brent Staples states that for the past years many colleges have changed their grading policies in order to make them less strict and more permissive. The author explains that there are several reasons behind this change. According to Staples, this trend is happening due to the need to make less appealing classes more attractive to students. Also, he adds that the demand from parents and students have led to more lenient grading policies to avoid hassle. Lastly, the author expresses that when professors do not give students high grades, they possibly will be given negative comments and evaluations from students that could affect their salary and tenure. Grade inflation devalues college diplomas and put society at risk.

In the United States, the average grade has been slowly creeping up during the past years. This grade inflation has generally been seen as a positive for students and parents, but it has much more detrimental effects for the state of higher education. One person to address these consequences is Brent Staples, author of “Why Colleges Shower Their Students With A's.” In his essay, he not only explains how grade inflation came to be, but he also describes how it is something negative since it is the lowering of standards so that excellence is no longer excellent because of how easily higher grades is given out.

Alfie Kohn discussed multiple fabulous points in his article, “Degrading to De-Grading”. The author suggests more effective ways to assess students’ progress other than numerical or letter grades. Kohn goes into detail about why our current grading system is flawed. Grades can cause students to lose interest in learning which causes them to stop taking challenges. If students are not engaged and interested than they are not retaining the information they are being taught. The grading system can also cause students to develop unhealthy competition with one another for instance, “I got a better grade than you!”. Indeed, grades are a wonderful concept, but they tend to be more hurtful than helpful. In some cases, grades can have positive effects on students. For example, setting goals for various assignments, or receiving help where they are struggling. Though, there are alternatives that could make positive changes in the system.

While many believe that the grading system has a concrete standing in the success of education, other’s believe that it actually can inhibit or at least lessen the effectiveness of learning. In “A Young Person’s Guide to the Grading System,” Jerry Farber states that for the longest time, many have dismissed the fact that grades could be harmful to the learning process. He argues that grades lack the ability to bring about self-discipline within the students learning the content. While the educational system has rendered changes throughout the years, the grading system maintains its virginity and has been fairly untouched. He insists that many educators are in strong belief that grades are the only way to ensure that learning is to take place within the classroom. Most of society would dictate that the system has been fairly effective in getting individuals through their schooling. But as Farber points out, students tend to focus more upon the grades they are receiving and less upon the content itself. Throughout his writing, Faber uses many forms of rhetoric to persuade the reader to believe the fact that the grading system is corrupted and should be changed, and offers a solution which is referred to as the Credit System. With this being said, it can be stated that Farber effectively conveys his argument through his appeal to a younger

LIABILITY/RESPONSIBILITY: One of the key issues is who should be held liable for the breaches? With so many parties involved in the credit card payment process, it’s difficult to define a certain group solely responsible.

Pragmaticism, indeed, will dictate that schools, assessments, and organizations long-established will not be altered for light and short-lived causes. Hence, a gradual shift in culture and method must occur which reforms the quantitative nature of grading systems. However, let the negative effects of the current grading system be known in a direct way:

Target person are Susan and Rico Cruz (spouse), they are both 40 years old. Susan is a government employee while her husband Rico is a seaman. They have 2 children. Their eldest is now working in a call center. The youngest just graduated from Grade 10. They’re looking for a university that offers K-12 program and has a good quality standards in education.

The article on “Rank Colleges, But Rank Them Right" has several strong points, one of which is the need for rankings motivated by the increasing demand by students and their parents for credible ranking data. The author, David Leonhardt, effectively appeals to the reader via three avenues: ethos, logos, and pathos. As a columnist, as well as managing editor for the New York Times, Leonhardt is plain spoken and analytical in his data laced commentary on ranking colleges. Included in his summary, lending credibility to the value of and need for rankings are in the following statements: "Today the United States ranks ninth among industrialized nations in higher education attainment...;" America used to be considered to be “the most

Margaret Atwood uses a variety of different ways to achieve the marginalization of women in her book The Handmaid’s Tale. The novel creates an entirely new social construct and redefines language to create the marginalization of women. Heavily relying on narrative voice, the novel unravels Gilead, a city set in a dystopian future where women are nothing more than objects. Men are the only ones who are ascribed to authority while women are marginalized as subordinates. The novel was written in 1985, a time when women were campaigning for equal rights.

Many books, movies, quotes and ideas have been crafted and based off of the stories and themes of The Bible. The parables as shown in The Bible As/In Literature have many characters that other authors and artists base their work off of as it guides some audiences to believe where these ideas and morals have come from. One of these art forms being the Dreamworks animated movie, The Prince of Egypt. It tells the Biblical story of Moses and how he saved the Israelites from the hard, grueling slave work the Egyptians forced through them, once God gave him the task to. The movie The Prince of Egypt and the parables from The Bible As/In Literature share many themes that connect the stories together and the traits shown through their characters. Some major themes that are used between the two are leadership, determination and faith.