College Standards, Student Performance Decline : Academia: Students of today--and many teachers--feel passing grades are deserved regardless of performance.

When the fall semester begins at Irvine Valley College next week, I will not answer the bell for a 15th year. I know that after 30 years of teaching I will miss the daily interaction with students, but my departure is made easier because of the eroding academic standards and student performance.

The skills and knowledge that high school graduates bring to college, particularly reading and writing skills, continue to decline; and more and more, performance and academic excellence are becoming unrelated to the course grades college students receive.

I am not the first professor, nor will I be the last, to acknowledge the lack of academic preparation and the decline in student performance. In a Times commentary (“Schools Missing Point: Education,” Sept. 27, 1987), Joseph N. Bell, a retiring UCI lecturer and subsequently a Times columnist, noted inadequate student preparation and declining achievement during his 20-year tenure.

It is bad enough that so many college students lack basic skills. But worse is that students receive passing grades, in high school and in college, for so little effort and minimal achievement.

Today’s students expect to pass each class in which they enroll, regardless of the quality of their work. Three former students at IVC come immediately to mind.

Student “A” lacked basic writing skills, yet throughout the semester, the student disregarded my instruction, writing choppy prose separated by sophomoric transitions. The weak verbs and simple sentences found in this student’s short essays looked like the work of a sixth-grader, not a college student writer.

At semester’s end I assigned the student a course grade of “D,” a generous mark. Not permitted to enroll in Writing 1, the student protested the grade, hoping a college administrator would improve it. Misled by receiving inflated grades in high school, the student’s grievance included this statement: “I’am (sic) an excellent student. I believe the final grade I recieved (sic) to be undeserving.”

In defending the grade I assigned, I wrote many memorandums to college administrators, and I attended many meetings with them and the student to discuss the student’s grievance. Eventually a college administrator suggested I administer a second final examination to the student, a recommendation I objected to. After months of discussion the student’s grievance was denied--but I received a letter of reprimand, the administrator charging I was guilty of insubordination for not administering a second final examination. (The outcome of a second final examination would not have affected the student’s course grade, unless the student’s grade was based on a different standard from the one used to assign grades to other class members.) When asked to identify the basis for allowing the student to complete a second examination, the administrator said, “I believe every student should pass.” When asked why, the administrator answered with an incredulous response: “Because we live in a democracy.”

Many college teachers share this administrator’s belief that no student should fail any class. Last spring a science professor at IVC told me, “I give a ‘C’ to any student who tries.” Such a procedure guarantees students pass that professor’s class who sit in their seats long enough and often enough throughout a semester. My argument that a college degree should represent more than accumulated seat time fell on deaf ears.

Student “B” failed to submit an acceptable term paper by semester’s end. To avoid assigning a failing grade, I assigned an “Incomplete,” an action permitting an additional year for the student to complete the paper. During that period the student contacted me numerous times, not for help in completing an acceptable paper, but to object to my requiring that the paper be revised. After a year passed and the student’s time limit expired, the registrar, following college policy, changed the “Incomplete” to a “D.” A college administrator faulted me because I would not permit the student an additional extension to submit an acceptable paper (an action prohibited by college policy). The student, neither wanting to revise the paper nor to repeat the class, grieved the recorded grade.

Student “C” also submitted a flawed term paper. When I assigned a “D” as a course grade, the student filed a grade grievance. When an administrator, in violation of state law, changed the grade from a “D” to a “C,” I filed a lawsuit against the administrator, the chancellor, and the board of trustees, all of whom supported the grade change. Last January, an Orange County Superior Court Commissioner overturned the college’s action, ordering the reinstatement of the grade I originally assigned.

Criticizing education always seems fashionable, although blaming somebody or something for declining standards and student performance is not my point here. Standards should matter. Performance should matter. Real education demands both. Without that education students cannot succeed in a highly competitive, technological world.

Regrettably, too few educators still demand academic rigor. Accumulated seat time has become synonymous with mastering course content, resulting in students receiving passing grades, often false indices of knowledge learned or competencies acquired. Because the voices that oppose low standards and minimal performance grow weaker and fewer, the decline in standards and performance continues unabated.