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| MEMO TO: LaGuardia Faculty and Staff DATE: 9/27/06 RE: Honesty in education I received the following e-mail a few days ago from an unfortunate LaGuardia grad who had somehow read my groupwise post of 9/18 on grade inflation in precalculus entitled “Rampant Grade Inflation” [see MEMO Sept 18 2006]: Mr. Millman, I am a recent LAGCC graduate who now attends CCNY. I took Pre-Calculus in my final semester @ LAGCC. I am now enrolled in the engineering program @ CCNY and am currently taking Calculus I. To my dismay, I became aware that I was not prepared to tackle the requirements of this intense course. I recieved a grade of B from my Pre-Calculus professor @ LAGCC, to my surprise. I did not feel as though my performance in the course merited such a grade, I expected no higher than a C. I am in total agreement of your stance on grade inflation. My professor was also studying and it seemed as though he never had enough time to spend on the material in class. The professor made up for this by grading our exams and quizzes "on a curve" (this puts students at a great disadvantage, though they may not realize it). LAGCC needs to better prepare its students for the academic transition to a senior college. I am currently getting tutoring so that I may catch up to the rest of my classmates. The first two weeks was spent on "review" material, but to me it was all new, my professor @ LAGCC had not covered the material in Pre-Calculus. Change is definately in need and soon. Sincerely, Close upon the heels of the grade inflation fiasco comes news of yet another slap in the face of higher education administered by the LaGuardia Math Dept. For the past six years the “reform” of Math 120 (Statistics I) has burdened students with a syllabus so large that few, if any, can comprehend it. Most instructors, myself included, find it practically impossible to adequately, or even inadequately, cover the required material. (I have called this situation to the College’s attention on groupwise several times in the past, with no result.) Now it turns out that CUNY has decreed that LaGuardia students who transfer to 4-year CUNY colleges and who wish to receive credit for Statistics I must have knowledge of the topics known as correlation and regression. These two topics take at least a week to cover in class and have always been part of the syllabus of Statistics II. Logically, the resolution of this issue would be to require said group of students to take Math 121 (Statistics II). However, there is no room in their busy schedule of required courses to make this possible. Therefore the College has resolved the problem in the traditional LaGuardia fashion: fake it. As a Statistics instructor, I was handed a memo a few days ago announcing that correlation and regression are now part of the Statistics I syllabus. The obvious fact that no instructor can possibly teach the already overburdened syllabus, as well as the two new topics, is conveniently ignored. The Math Dept., albeit on strict orders from above, has once again prostituted itself to the level of outright fraud. I can’t help envisioning some unfortunate LaGuardia grads in the near future sitting in a psychology, nursing, math or education class at a 4-year college, much like the kid in the e-mail above, and wondering “what the hell is that?” when the instructor starts speaking about correlation and regression. Perhaps some day a LaGuardia bigshot will ask himself why he is working in a toilet that passes for a college and decide to spill the beans to some responsible, uncorrupted city agency (assuming one exists), which agency will then finally pull the plug on LaGuardia. I can only hope I live long enough to see it happen. |
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