Quote:
Originally Posted by ratherbefishing186
Not surprised at all. I hear so many stories from my little sister about not being allowed to fail students in public schools.
I just want to know where the hell were these prof's during my drunken first freshmen year! 8)
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It's too bad your sister gets push back.
The experience of colleagues and I is that (with occasional exceptions for athletes) most college profs can fail some students at most schools. The real issue is whether there is a defacto tolerance level. If the administration will only allow 1% of students to fail, and only 80% earn passing grades, then 19% get passed without earning it.
When that kind of deal gets combined with admissions policies (often including affirmative action) that allows a flood of students into a school and then enrolling in courses for which they are woefully unprepared, there is a lot of pressure on profs to pass students who have not really earned degree credit by becoming proficient in learning objectives.
This tends to snowball in math and in courses that require math (physics, chemistry, and engineering). If 50% of the students in Calculus, Physics, Chemistry, or Engineering classes do not have the math skills to succeed, and there is no way the college will allow a prof to fail them all, then there must be a wholesale lowering of standards.