Yes, there are plenty of articles discussing MIT and grade deflation. Unfortunately, none of the ones I could find have any data - its all anecdotal from students. The hard data I did actually find (http://www.gradeinflation.com/) shows grade inflation at MIT matching that at Harvard (the media's favorite grade inflation target) almost perfectly from 1950-2000.
I never thought this before, but now that I've actually looked at what little data is available, it looks an awful lot like the MIT grade deflation thing is a myth.
Ah ha, this site is where the data series is, specifically: http://www.gradeinflation.com/MIT.html and my memory about The Tech is from where they got a lot of their data.
So, you're telling me, the GPA going down 1/100 of a point in the quarter century of 1976-2000, is evidence of grade inflation???
If you can seriously look at this time series, accounting for the two factors of better post-Sputnik math and science education and Vietnam War avoid the draft, or simply limit yourself to the period after both of those ('73-75 for the draft, by which time the upper level post-Sputnik reforms would have hit the applicants), then factor in that freshmen went from pass/fail to grades in their second term during this period, and say MIT has statistically significant grade inflation, we have no basis for a discussion.
If we're allowed to pick and choose our time series, the quarter century before that MIT saw inflation at almost double that of the grade inflation poster child, Harvard.
Yeah, you can rationalize based on outside events, but without real data on how much of the change is actually attributable to those things, you're just fitting facts into your worldview. How do we know there aren't similar events in the quarter century you've chosen that are forcing deflation?
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Yes, there are plenty of articles discussing MIT and grade deflation. Unfortunately, none of the ones I could find have any data - its all anecdotal from students. The hard data I did actually find (http://www.gradeinflation.com/) shows grade inflation at MIT matching that at Harvard (the media's favorite grade inflation target) almost perfectly from 1950-2000.
I never thought this before, but now that I've actually looked at what little data is available, it looks an awful lot like the MIT grade deflation thing is a myth.
Ah ha, this site is where the data series is, specifically: http://www.gradeinflation.com/MIT.html and my memory about The Tech is from where they got a lot of their data.
So, you're telling me, the GPA going down 1/100 of a point in the quarter century of 1976-2000, is evidence of grade inflation???
If you can seriously look at this time series, accounting for the two factors of better post-Sputnik math and science education and Vietnam War avoid the draft, or simply limit yourself to the period after both of those ('73-75 for the draft, by which time the upper level post-Sputnik reforms would have hit the applicants), then factor in that freshmen went from pass/fail to grades in their second term during this period, and say MIT has statistically significant grade inflation, we have no basis for a discussion.
If we're allowed to pick and choose our time series, the quarter century before that MIT saw inflation at almost double that of the grade inflation poster child, Harvard.
Yeah, you can rationalize based on outside events, but without real data on how much of the change is actually attributable to those things, you're just fitting facts into your worldview. How do we know there aren't similar events in the quarter century you've chosen that are forcing deflation?