All Posts Tagged With: "Mikhail Kovalyov"
UAlberta speaks out on grading dispute
Under no circumstances are grades changed ‘arbitrarily,’ says dean of science
University of Alberta dean of science Gregory Taylor recently issued a response to Gateway editor Jonn Kmech’s editorial on the grading dispute between the university and math professor Mikhail Kovalyov.
It should be recalled that Kovalyov was asked to resign after informing his students that their grades were lowered by administrators without his support. The changes made by administrators in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences resulted in the class average for the professor’s first year course to drop from 2.16 to 1.79, while the university’s grading policy suggests an average of 2.62 for courses at the same level.
In his editorial, Kmech argued that, “While it’s currently the department’s prerogative to approve the final grades, if they can lower the marks by bulk like this, there doesn’t seem much point to professors handing out grades at all.”
Science dean Taylor responds that Kmech’s editorial suggests that administrators change instructor’s grades at random to fit a grading curve, which Taylor argues, “is simply not the case.”
“There is no policy that requires a quota of As, Bs, Cs, and so on in a course or across sections of a course,” Taylor states.
However, as noted in our original story, the explanation given by faculty services officer David McNeilly for altering the grades, was that Kovalyov awarded too many B grades and “failed to include any grades of C-, D+, or D,” which clearly suggests a grading curve.
The university’s grading policy posted on its website also outlines suggested distributions of grades for undergraduate courses. Although professors are not expected to follow the distribution “exactly,” guidelines suggest that in a first year class, six per cent of students will fail, nine per cent will receive a B and four per cent will be awarded an A+.
Judging by evidence presented in the Kovalyov case and the university’s grading policy itself, Taylor’s argument that a grading curve does not exist at the U of A is not a very strong one.
‘there doesn’t seem much point to professors handing out grades at all’
UAlberta grades dispute ‘breaks trust in grading’
John Kmech, editor of the University of Alberta’s the Gateway, weighs in on the grading dispute between math professor Mikhail Kovalyov and the university.
It’s unclear what the department gains from failing so many students or giving the class a final average of 1.79, little higher than a C-. It could be seen as maintaining “standards,” and it’s true that students should do poorly if they aren’t pulling their weight. But what “fail” means inherently depends on the difficulty of the coursework, something that only an individual professor can judge. While it’s currently the department’s prerogative to approve the final grades, if they can lower the marks by bulk like this, there doesn’t seem much point to professors handing out grades at all.
Read the the rest here.
Students speak out on UAlberta grades dispute
Mixed reactions about math prof who’s grades were lowered by department
To follow up on my earlier post on the dispute between math professor Mikhail Kovalyov and the University of Alberta, I was recently able to get in contact with some of the students who Kovalyov had emailed criticizing the math department for lowering their grades and encouraging them to appeal their marks. Those emails, it will be recalled, ultimately resulted in the university relieving Kovalyov of his teaching duties and asking for his resignation. Reactions from his students are mixed.
Rylee Machula, whose grade was lowered from a C to an F, said that while he found Kovalyov’s emails “childish,” he opposed the administration’s decision to alter the class average. “The changes should never have happened. It wasn’t their place,” he said. The geology student later launched a successful appeal, raising his final mark for the first-year math class to a D.
Yasin Isse, whose grade was lowered from a B- to a C+ appealed his grade after Kovalyov had emailed the class, but in his case the appeal was denied. “It was a long process and the university did take necessary measures to try to resolve the conflict by getting a different person to examine the situation and answer each students’ claims specifically,” he said.
Isse added that the various emails he received from both Kovalyov and administrators became confusing. “It got to the point that I did not know who was telling the truth . . ., it just took too much effort and time to digest all the material and really understand the situation,” he said. Of Kovalyov, Isse said that “it is a shame he had to leave.”
Other students were content with their final mark. “I got a B- in the class and that’s honestly no more or no less than what I feel I deserved” Jeffrey Lafleche, a student in the faculty of education, said. Lafleche said he felt “pretty cynical” about the appeal process and “figured it would be a waste of time.”
Related: ‘there doesn’t seem much point to professors handing out grades at all’
Are grading curves fair?
Our student panel weighs in
At the centre of the dispute between math professor Mikhail Kovalyov and the University of Alberta is the question of grading curves. Kovalyov’s course average was lowered by department administrators supposedly because he had awarded too many Bs compared to Cs and Ds, touching off a battle that ultimately resulted in the administration asking him to resign.
The case is unique because Kovalyov actively encouraged his students to appeal their grades. It also highlights the fact that how students are assessed can be controversial.
Achieving target class averages often involves employing a mathematical grading curve to ensure that in each class their are the predetermined number of As, Cs, and Fs awarded. Results can be confusing. If an overwhelming number of students score well on an exam, even those with a mark in the high 80s could see their final grade curved down to a B. Similarly, if a disproportionate number of students score very low, a pass for the exam could be set at 35 per cent.
We asked our student panel whether they thought grading curves are fair. Answers are posted below, as well as on our front page. As with previous weeks, all videos are archived on our You Tube Channel.
Higher grades have a right to exist
Grade inflation isn’t solved by using blunt changes to certain courses
An interesting discussion on grade inflation has been sparked southside recently by an article in the New York Times, which looked at the University of North Carolina’s attempts to rein in rising grade point averages. Averages have risen on average by a tenth of a point each decade since the 1960s.
That’s in the USA though. In Canada, controversies over grade inflation are more likely to happen at the course level, rather than the institutional one. There is of course the example of Denis Rancourt in 2009, who was fired from the University of Ottawa after he gave an A+ to everyone in an upper year physics course. This month, it’s the case of Mikhail Kovalyov at the University of Alberta, who has been asked to resign after letting his students know their grades were lowered over his objections. But overall, this country has been less concerned about grades being too high on a university-wide level, than about courses that are “too easy.”
Funny though that you never hear debates about the courses that are “too hard”, though they too exist. Classes where a third of the class is meant to fail, or where there is simply a crummy professor. Yet these courses are inevitable, because there is always a need to separate the wheat from the chaff, and there is always a few rotten professors in a faculty of dozens.
But an undergraduate degree requires passing dozens of courses. Some will be hard/easy/fair/unfair, and that’s part of the point. It’s a varied challenge. And when the reason for directly interfering with particular marks is only cross-section consistency as with Kovalyov, it gives credence to criticisms of universities operated as degree factories over places of open inquiry and learning, where the grades are secondary to the experience. Transparency in grading practices and internal struggles to ensure fair grading are good—but subjective wholesale modifications after the fact are a rather blunt instrument to combat a nuanced issue.
So while I don’t know enough about the particulars in the Kovalyov case to have a strong opinion, more often than not universities are trying to correct a problem that doesn’t exist when it comes to grade inflation.
Alberta prof asked to resign over grades dispute
Legal action threatened after students’ marks lowered by admin
A University of Alberta math professor is threatening legal action to reinstate his students’ grades after his department lowered them without his support. When Mikhail Kovalyov informed his students what had happened, and encouraged them to appeal their grades, he was asked to resign.
Back in May, Kovalyov received an email from an associate chair in the Department of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences informing him that grades for his first year math course had been lowered, resulting in a change in class average from 2.16 to 1.79 on a 4.0 scale. Other sections of the same course had averages that ranged from 2.13 to 2.95, according to documentation obtained by Maclean’s. The math professor says that he had already failed over 20 per cent of the class before these changes were approved.
University guidelines suggest an approximate mean average of 2.62 for first-year courses, with only six per cent of the class failing.
When faculty services officer David McNeilly, who is also responsible for reviewing final grades, first proposed the changes to Kovalyov in April, he explained in an email that the department’s proposed grades for Kovalyov’s class were “more generous than the typical exam cutoffs.” He also pointed out that in Fall 2009, the department failed 29 per cent of students in one section of the class. “In particular, we are being consistent,” McNeilly wrote.
Kovalyov responded to McNeilly that if so many extra students deserve to fail, then they should never have passed and received credit for math courses in the previous semester. “If we were consistent, all these students would have never made [it] through” the prerequisites, he wrote.
Related: Students speak out on UAlberta case
‘there doesn’t seem much point to professors handing out grades at all’
A 65 page document prepared by Kovalyov for the board of governors in August, outlining the events of the dispute, includes an expanded explanation from McNeilly why the grades were lowered. In particular, Kovalyov supposedly awarded too many B grades compared to C and D grades, even if the overall class average was not excessively high.
Kovalyov says he always outlines his marking policy to students at the beginning of the term. “By doing this, they made my words to students worthy of nothing,” he wrote in an email to Maclean’s. “I am certainly one of those less respectable professors who can be told to lower their grades.”
Shortly after learning of the changes to his grades, Kovalyov emailed his students and encouraged them to appeal. “Should any one of you [choose] to complain, I will try to assist as much as I can within the law and regulations” he wrote. He also called the department’s actions “disgusting.”
Despite warnings from administrators that taking his case directly to students is “inappropriate,” Kovalyov sent two additional emails to students, in which he called the actions of the departmental administration “a crime of forgery.”
Those messages to students did not sit well with university brass and in July Kovalyov was informed by department chair Arturo Pianzola that he was being relieved of his teaching duties.
In a letter explaining the decision, Pianzola says that the “contents” of the emails Kovalyov sent to students “disparage administration” and contain “unfounded and inappropriate,” allegations.
A formal complaint was also filed against Kovalyov by the dean of science, Gregory Taylor, as well as Pianzola, stating that Kovalyov’s actions were “unbecoming” of a senior professor. The letter accuses Kovalyov of “Undermining student confidence” in the grade appeal process and “Engaging in insubordination.” An email Kovalyov sent to an administrator where he referenced Joseph Stalin’s purges from the 1920s and 1930s was also cited in the complaint against him.
In late November, Kovalyov, who has taught at the university for more than 20 years, was offered a deal in exchange for his resignation. Under the proposed arrangement the university would continue to pay his full salary until March 2011, followed by a lump sum payout in April equivalent to 15 months pay. He turned down the offer.
Instead, Kovalyov wants phased pre-retirement where he would continue to provide partial duties until 2013 when he was originally suppose to retire. He has been consulting with the faculty association on how best to proceed.
Kovalyov said that while he finds the disciplinary actions of the university unfair, he no longer sees much of a future for himself at the U of A. “Even if this matter is settled, something else will come up,” he said.
Kovalyov’s battle with administrators over grades go back to at least 2009, when he says grade averages were lowered for two sections he taught of a first-year math course. He has also been embroiled in a similar dispute regarding a third-year course.
The university has declined comment on the case, and attempts to contact other professors in the department, as well as several of Kovalyov’s students, were not responded to.
Vice-president provost (apologies, the editors) academic Colleen Skidmore did agree to address grading policy in general terms. She explained that the grades set by instructors are unofficial until approved by the chair of the professor’s respective department. “It is the chair, or the dean, that has the responsibility for ultimately deciding what the final grade is,” she said.
Photo: Getty Images
