Re: FW: Grading Alternative

["John E. Purchase, Ed. D." <jopur@muskoka.com>]

Del Nelson wrote:

"The best proof that this was WED's position comes from his own teaching
record. He didn't grade. Everybody got an "A" (which, as he taught me, why I
do the same)."

If Deming gave everyone an "A", even after waiting as much as a year to have a project turned in,
he was grading.   In his case "A" seems to have meant that WED's course requirement was satisfied.
Whether early, just on time, or late, the student passed the course.  What code, stated or assumed,
did WED give incomplete or never submitted assignments?   If "A" means that the assignment met the
requirements then the implicit "Not A" is the other half of the pass/fail coding.  Deming was
"grading" even though he might not have called it that.

Del also wrote:

"Anyone who disagrees with that MUST be able to resolve/solve
the question/problem:

A  +  BC  +  C  =  D

I perceive this to be a "Gordian Knot".   It appears to be insoluble, perhaps meaningless,  in its
own terms.   If so, one must take the Sword of Alexander the Great to it.

Just to get the symbols away from looking like those used in the common grading codes,  I'll call
them "I", individual,  "S", society or system,  and "R", result and restate it as      I + IS + S =
R.

But any R is the product (even by repeated additions and subtactions) of the interactions between
the components peculiar to  the I and the particular substrate that is S.  Therefore,  IS is
identical to R and, as stated above, the problem resolves to I + S = 0 (zero).  The IS term is
redundant.

Reject the problem as proposed and rewrite it  as   I + S = R.

Any evaluation of a product (result) is a conception of what the individual or individuals brought
to the task as it was required and supported by the system in which and by which the task was set.
There is nothing unusual (but certainly not unprofound) about that.   It's for that reason that "A
to F" is not an absolute scale but rather a relative one.   The grades are meaningless without one
having access to the characteristics of the requirements and the characteristics of those
individuals trying to attain them.

John E. Purchase
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