{"id":115953,"date":"2022-10-24T17:07:19","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T21:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/?p=115953"},"modified":"2022-10-24T17:07:19","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T21:07:19","slug":"professor-dismissed-by-nyu-for-hard-grading-speaks-out-against-declining-standards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecollegefix.com\/professor-dismissed-by-nyu-for-hard-grading-speaks-out-against-declining-standards\/","title":{"rendered":"Professor dismissed by NYU for hard grading speaks out against declining standards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Students, professors and administrators must oppose falling standards and an entitled mentality<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Maitland Jones, the former NYU adjunct professor whose contract was not renewed <\/a>following a student petition claiming his chemistry class was too hard, penned an op-ed for the Boston Globe<\/em><\/a> describing a decline in student performance and accountability.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany students seem increasingly unwilling to put in the necessary effort to master the material, and teachers are burning out at a rapid rate,\u201d Jones wrote.<\/p>\n

Jones had taught at NYU as an adjunct since 2007. Previously he worked as a tenured professor at Princeton for 43 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven before COVID-19 disrupted classrooms, there were signs of trouble,\u201d he stated. \u201cAbout 10 years ago, I noticed that students were increasingly misreading exam questions. Exam scores began to decline, as did attendance in the traditional large lecture section of the course.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students \u201cperformed abysmally on exams that would have seemed too easy only a few years ago. A few did attend the zoomed office hours, but they were the best students in the class, not the ones who needed help.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scores declined, even as grades inflated. Single digit scores proliferated and some students scored zeros, \u201csomething that had never happened before.\u201d Even so, top students’ grades shot up without added challenge or mastery.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t their fault, it was ours,\u201d Jones wrote.<\/p>\n

Faculty experienced ‘chilling effect;’ Jones not allowed to view petition against him<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cStudent evaluations, once highly useful, have become just another social media opportunity to vent,\u201d Jones wrote. \u201cEvaluations are now often personal and sometimes profane.\u201d<\/p>\n

He wrote that he and his coteacher began to receive \u201canonymous emails,\u201d \u201coften just short of threatening,\u201d After the summer of 2020, they were accused of insensitivity to stress students were facing because of current events.<\/p>\n

When students sent a petition in spring 2022 to NYU deans, \u201cevidently complaining about procedures and grades,\u201d the deans did not allow Jones to view the petition, he wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter several months of silence on their part, on Aug. 2, the deans fired me over the objections of the chemistry department,\u201d Jones wrote. \u201cThe administration summarily dismissed the grievance I filed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones objected not to his own treatment but to the \u201cchilling effect\u201d of such administrative decisions on teachers seeking to grade fairly and hold students to high standards:<\/p>\n

Can a young assistant professor, almost all of whom are not protected by tenure, teach demanding material? Dare they give real grades? Their entire careers are at the peril of complaining students and deans who seem willing to turn students into nothing more than tuition-paying clients.<\/p>\n

Nor are tenured faculty unaffected. At NYU some refuse to teach undergraduates any longer. The teaching in the chemistry department has been negatively affected, both by the decline in student capacity and the intervention of third-party administrators.<\/p>\n

In a university, the feeling of community crumbles when trust is lost. If tenured faculty cannot depend on fair-minded support from departmental and university leadership, they cannot transfer their knowledge and experience to the next generation of students and teachers. If nontenured young teachers dare not explore rigorous material with students, they will never maximize their teaching skills as they once hoped.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jones concluded by writing that students, professors, and administrators must take equal responsibility for declining standards and a dysfunctional university culture.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudents need to to develop the ability to take responsibility for failure,\u201d he wrote. Teachers must \u201chave the courage\u201d to assign low grades when appropriate. Administrators must support faculty and resist the temptation to “coddle”<\/a> students.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn these times when critical thinking skills are desperately needed, it is more important than ever to dedicate ourselves to the high standards of education,\u201d Jones concluded. \u201cWithout those standards, we as a nation will not produce those individuals \u2014 doctors, engineers, scientists, \u2013 citizens! \u2014 who will guide us toward a better future.\u201d<\/p>\n

MORE: Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt on three bad ideas to resist in college<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

IMAGE: Maitland Jones<\/p>\n

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