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by Drublic on February 5th, 2007

Drublic

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When and how did the A-F grading system start?

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  • by canadianhelper on February 5th, 2007

    canadianhelper

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grading_in_the_United_States

    The concept of grading students' work quantitatively was developed by a tutor named William Farish, and first implemented by the University of Cambridge in 1792.

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0679745408/ref=sib_dp_pt/103-4867583-8232610#reader-link
    Page 145

    http://worldhistoryconnected.press.uiuc.edu/1.1/betterly.html
    I must be honest and make it clear from the beginning that I strongly prefer to avoid giving number or letter grades altogether. Grading is apparently a practice which, according to Neil Postman, originated in 1792:

    The first instance of grading students' papers occurred at Cambridge University in 1792 at the suggestion of a tutor named William Farish.... To say that someone should be doing better work because he has an IQ of 134, or that someone is a 7.2 on a sensitivity scale, or that this man's essay on capitalism is an A- and that man's is a C+ would have sounded like gibberish to Galileo or Shakespeare or Thomas Jefferson.[1]

    4
    William Farish probably had no idea what havoc would ultimately be wrought by his innovation. Thus, I write this paper with immense trepidation, lest it prove to begin a similar descent into one of the darker underworlds of Academe.

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    • Another great answer canadianhelper.

      Drublic

      by Drublic on February 5th, 2007

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