Great post, as always. Regarding your point, "There is no evidence in the literature that grading on a curve perpetuates or worsens inequities...." It's a reasonable point, yet the arguments against grading on a curve already seem so strong to me that I personally feel no urge to have that data. If I imagine that two empirical studies addressing this issue will be published this summer, I would skim them to see what they found but they wouldn't change my practice one bit. Even if both studies were able to show that grading on a curve did not exacerbate inequity, that would not remotely "redeem" grading on a curve, at least for me.
100% agree, Greg! But as a scientist, I do think it's worth pointing out when claims are being made based on theory not data. I'm in the very early stages of potentially trying to fill that research gap by looking directly at the impact of grading on a curve on inequities. Stay tuned.
Great post, as always. Regarding your point, "There is no evidence in the literature that grading on a curve perpetuates or worsens inequities...." It's a reasonable point, yet the arguments against grading on a curve already seem so strong to me that I personally feel no urge to have that data. If I imagine that two empirical studies addressing this issue will be published this summer, I would skim them to see what they found but they wouldn't change my practice one bit. Even if both studies were able to show that grading on a curve did not exacerbate inequity, that would not remotely "redeem" grading on a curve, at least for me.
100% agree, Greg! But as a scientist, I do think it's worth pointing out when claims are being made based on theory not data. I'm in the very early stages of potentially trying to fill that research gap by looking directly at the impact of grading on a curve on inequities. Stay tuned.