Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/58065
time, students perceive any inter- vention by the administration as an attempt to deflate grades, which is not the issue. Faculty give all sorts of excuses for refusing to toughen up grading policies. My favorite one is, "The students will trash me in the evalua- tions if I make the course too rigor- ous." We asked one of our faculty to run an analysis of MBA grades. She found no statistical correla- tion between grades and the overall evaluation of the faculty member. We are still evaluating this question for undergraduates. If we are not rigorous in our courses, we are dishonest as educa- tors, and we are doing a disservice to our students. A competitive world will hold them to high standards. Even if the experience is painful, it is better for students to learn to perform at a high level in university rather than in life. Moreover, think of how unnerv- ing it would be if grade inflation affected other areas of our lives. Do you want your physician to tell you everything is fine (you get an A), or that you are putting your life at risk if you don't get your cholesterol down (you really deserve a D)? And consider the disastrous consequences if other professions were filled with people who had not learned hard lessons in school. Would you like your next air- line flight to be staffed by pilots who were passed and certified only because they begged for good grades? Would you like to know that they didn't practice instrument approaches in fog because they had too much to do while they were in school? Similarly, would you like your business taxes to be prepared by an accountant who skipped over the material on accelerated deprecia- tion, saying, "I can get the grade I need without studying that stuff"? The pedagogy experts tell us that individual teachers cannot change the system. They argue that a single university should not buck the trend and take extreme action alone. Unless everyone deals with rigor and grades simultaneously, we only put our students and our insti- tutions at a disadvantage. I have a simple answer. Get over it. Do what you know is right. It is up to each of us to ensure that all students get personal performance messages about their demonstrated knowledge on a particular subject. What students do with the message is up to them. Shortly after I arrived at ASU two years ago, I was visited by one of my former Wharton students. He told me a course I had taught more than 20 years ago had changed his life. That's what we should want as feedback—not evaluations from students in school this semester, but testimonials from successful alumni who appreciate the fact that we held them to rigorous standards and helped them learn. Let me repeat: Grades are mes- sages, not merit badges. The sooner we reconnect grades to demonstrat- ed learning, the more our students will achieve in life. That's what I learned, beyond the course material, from my calculus teacher 40 years ago. I am still grateful. ■ z Robert E. Mittelstaedt Jr. is dean and professor of management at the W.P. Carey School of Business, Arizona State University. Prior to his appointment to ASU in 2004, he held a variety of posts at The Wharton School, most recently as vice dean of executive education. BizEd JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2007 61