1. R.oB. wrote:

The question is a false one. She is doing what all educators should be doing: providing quality pedagogy to all her students. Targeting her teaching efficiently, i.e. providing more instruction to those who need it is what we should expect from all our educators. It’s up to the students to seek help and perform. I had to learn that lesson the hard way myself, being used to lots of A’s with little to no effort and coming to a tough school being forced to be a real student. She should follow the dean’s suggestion and let the political chips fall where they may. Don’t let the student body project their politics on her mission.

2. timaree wrote:

wow. what a scenario. the choices she can make now have been laid out fairly reasonably by the author, but in order to really address the problem (the discrepancy in grades), she must figure out the reason the grades are breaking down along these variables.

is this a phenomenon purely in her class? (that is, are students of color performing consistently lower in each course or just hers?) perhaps it’s those individual students in particular who are having difficulties. perhaps there is some other factor, like all those students also happen to have to work in addition to school work or are all involved in some extra curricular group, activity or team that requires a lot of their time. is there any common denominator other than race?

what are the methods that have been associated with grades improving for students in general and for these students in need in particular? what is it about these extra sessions? are they just more practice with the material? does it include a platonic interactive element her course normally precludes?

students who tend to do well tend to continue to do well- sometimes due to the fact they have more effective study habits or methods that could be imparted on the students who are having more difficulty. maybe the sessions could examine the ways in which students are recording, internalizing and synthesizing the class material.

at the end of all of this, though, is the question: these extra study groups which are causing so much drama and hand-wringing and which likely are taking a great deal of her time- ARE THEY GOING TO DO ANYTHING? let’s say she manages to have study sessions just for the student who are performing the worst- will more of the same make a difference anyway? perhaps these individual students are doing the best they can. if the open-book and untimed tests didn’t make a difference, maybe this is just another method that won’t change some other, bigger, deeper factor that causes the discrepancy.

3. DCI74 wrote:

I think her solution is a worthwhile one and I agree with you R.o.B. she is doing exactly what dedicated educators should be doing and I applaud that wholeheartedly. If she wants to provide assistance for the students with lower grades she should be free to do so without negativity from the high achieving students, considering their grades don’t necessitate special sessions from their instructor.

However I see what you are saying timaree and as a research educator the first thing that comes to mind is ‘are there any other factors the low-achieving students have in common?’ I can’t blindly say it’s simply a race thing but I would want to know how they are doing in their other courses, how they have responded grade-wise to other special sessions if in fact they were participants as well as what if anything they are doing to help themselves outside of the university structure i.e. weekday/weekend study sessions.

The problem seems more complex than just the black and brown students have lower grades than the white students. Therefore I think what she is doing is a good start and she should go back and evaluate the process to see if in fact there was enough improvement to warrant this for future classes.

4. CIA-FBI wrote:

I don’t see the problem here. The higher achieving students don’t have a legitimate complaint. The extra sessions are for students who need “help”. There is no reason someone with an A (A- whatever) needs to be in the remedial sessions. I find that these people tend to take over the sessions with their questions, thoughts, ideas and the people who really need the help feel even more “inferior” to say the least. She should stick to her guns.

5. j wrote:

Personally I think that it is not in her teaching style or if someone is black or white that people get good grades. First you have to look at situations. Most likely blacks and latinos might have a side job or family issues (not because our families are messed up but because we are very family oriented people). With her giving extra help to people with lower grades, which is mostly minorites, is just making it seem that they just dont get it. I think we get it but we just dont have time for it like our white counterparts. Unfortunately I say such is life.

Sometimes I dont get people they complain if it rains they complain if the sun shines, I say do what you do just watch my shoes.

6. knowledge_base wrote:

He’s describing affirmative action (notice there are no quotas, because they are not legal)

7. Tom Penn wrote:

The instructor should hold the extra sessions and open them up to ALL her students. When I took a Math class here at Penn, many of the students were strugiling with the course, and the professor held a help session once a week. It was open to all his students, regardless of their grade. Of course, the only students who attended the seesions were the ones who felt they needed extra help. Nobody was stigmatized, and as a friend of mine who attended the sessions told me, almost everyone felt as though they benifited from the extra help.

8. *M* wrote:

The sessions should be available to everyone, regardless of the letter grade. It does not stop those with a B or under from attending and getting extra help, it is not siting well with me to excludes the higher grade earners, they may not need it, but there is no reason why they can not attend.