First make sure you didn't typo any grades. (Like type an R instead of an F.) Just a thought.

I'm on thin ice here, haven't done this in a while. Somebody else??
Are you supposed to "save" after you hit approve? I thought Save was for when you have to stop entering and then come back. I thought approve was the final step.

Before I jump to a conclusion, let me ask a question: Have you entered any other class's grades?

What was your distribution like in the smaller class?

Actually, I don't know diddly about this "SOAR" business, but it made for a cool "nom." But I do know a lot about grade distributions & academic computing systems, having diddlied with them for about 30 years...

Everybody's old pal Occam said, "Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity."

First, does this error in fact exist? One poster up-thread has stated that it does not. For that matter, does the error actually mean what you think it means? Computer programmers live in an alternate universe, y'know?

Did the number of grades entered exceed the number that the system has on record for the course? Might there be students who withdrew from the course through other channels (counselor, etc) & didn't inform you? That would have caused you to enter grades for more than 100% of the course enrollment, which would obviously be outside "acceptable norms." If the system pre-populates "W" grades, there still might've been errors if you tried to change any of these to letter grades. (The system I use doesn't allow a "W" to be changed from the faculty side without filing change-of-grade paperwork, but I've seen systems that don't "lock" grades & give the illusion that everything can be changed from the faculty side.)

Are you sure that your "normal" distribution is in fact statistically "normal?" If the number of "F" grades you awarded exceeded 2.3%, your distribution was not "normal." (For that matter, if more than 2.3% of the class received "A" grades, your distribution wasn't normal either, which is why a "normal" distribution is virtually useless for "curving" grades.) Simply making the number of F's the same as the number of A's, etc., etc., doth not a normal distribution make.

Finally, assuming some nefarious plot also means that you think the administration is smart enough to know that it might "impose" an "acceptable grade distribution" through this particular mechanism & has the technical know-how to accomplish it. I don't think that's a particularly valid assumption, either. We are talking about a crew that couldn't file "bogus" enrollment numbers without getting caught


- Invictus

Let me get this straight. When you gave a "normal" curve of grades, you got the error message, and when you gave almost all "A,B,C" grades you got no error message. That tells me that the administration wants you to stop giving so many Ds and Fs!

quote:

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Originally posted by: Grader
"Let me get this straight. When you gave a "normal" curve of grades, you got the error message, and when you gave almost all "A,B,C" grades you got no error message. That tells me that the administration wants you to stop giving so many Ds and Fs!"

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you're kidding . . .right?

quote:

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Originally posted by: Grader
"Let me get this straight. When you gave a "normal" curve of grades, you got the error message, and when you gave almost all "A,B,C" grades you got no error message. That tells me that the administration wants you to stop giving so many Ds and Fs!"

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I don't teach at the University of Southern Mississippi, but if I did no administrator would tell me what grades to give or what type of distribution those grades should take.

quote:

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Originally posted by: LeavingASAP
" Heck No,  Then you wouldn't be teaching at USM for very long.  I take that back.  It does depend on the your college.  For example, I hear too many fail in Math and Science courses and the dean moved people out of classes to make sure more passed watered down courses."

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I see your point, LeavingASAP. But if I were teaching there and learned of such inappropriate interferrence, I wouldn't be teaching there very long. However, it would be my choice and not that of some bush league administrator.

quote:

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Originally posted by: LeavingASAP
"Agreed, Heck No.  Now you understand my name: Leaving As Soon As Possible."

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Considering the current condition at your present school, you do deserve a far better place if things don't change. I wish you the best of success. 

good stuff,

I hope that LeavingASAP will leave on his or her own terms. No faculty member should let any bush league administrator nudge them along.

quote:

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Originally posted by: good stuff
"havent you been 'leaving as soon as possible' for a while now?  shouldnt you get a move on?"

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Well, officially contracts run until the end of May.  So June 1 I will have to take another name.  I wish I could talk Shelby into leaving with me.

1.  Grades are being manipulated all over campus.  Anytime an administration starts using the "R" word, you're being told to lighten up on grades.  However, in my college you'll get punished for not being rigorous enough.  It's challenging working between the two.

2.  I take exception to the administration of USM being called "bush league administrators".  I have friends whose careers led them into administration at what many would term bush league schools.  They are honest, diligent, understand state law, and try to do the best they can with limited resources.  They also teach and write a paper now and then.  To compare this crew to the vast majority of diligent administrators at lower level schools is an insult to the latter.  You could bring a lot of these people into the current USM and we wouldn't be worrying about SACS.  Bit of tongue in cheek here but on second thought less than I thought initially.

 

quote:

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Originally posted by: Heck No
"USM has been fortunate to have some marvelous administrators. But it has not been free of the bush league type by any means. I trust that you are not saying that all USM administrators have been wurl' class. "

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Sorry for the misunderstanding.  The phrase just reminded me of how bad our situation has become.  I truly have some old friends that are admins at Division III schools.  They are now old hands at routine administration and would be a vast improvement over the keystone cops administrators we now have at USM.  I can guarantee you that none of the faculty in their units are now wondering where there classes are for the summer or waiting for someone to quit "tinkering" with their annual evaluations in May.  These people are not adminstrative superstars but they know how to keep the trains running on time and keep folks like SACS happy.