DISTRIBUTION OF COLLEGE CREDITS 403 



still the tendency everywhere, in spite of the manifest absurdity of de- 

 claring a large proportion of students distinguished. 



On the other hand, nearly every institution has instructors who 

 occasionally refuse pass marks to large proportions of their students. 

 It was when a professor in Missouri "flunked" his entire class, and 

 the boards overruled him by passing the entire class, that some of the 

 faculty urged the adoption of a scientific system of grading. The 

 students at another college put more sense than lyrical charm into the 

 following lines: 



There was a professor named Bray 

 Who forgot the reflection on Bray, 

 When in two of his classes 

 He gave but few passes. 

 And frightened good students away. 



If an instructor refuses to pass some of the median half of the surface 

 of distribution, it must mean, as a rule, that his methods of instruction 

 or discipline are faulty, or that an unwarranted proportion of students 

 have been admitted to a course they are unprepared to take. In 

 either case, the fault is not with the students, but with the administra- 

 tion of the college. 



The distribution of grades by the various departments at the Uni- 

 versity of Missouri in 1909, under the new rules, showed a range in 

 percentage of A*8 from twenty in the history of art to zero in political 

 science. The narrow limits of 2 to 7 per cent, included seventy-two 

 per cent, of the departments. Thirteen departments gave the median 

 percentage of A's, which was 4. The entire distribution of grades by 

 departments was published and sent to the instructors, together with a 

 table locating the responsibility for the failure to hold to the adopted 

 definition of grades. The table gave the name of each instructor whose 

 percentage of A-B grades differed from 25 by more than 2, and the 

 name of each instructor whose percentage of D-E grades differed from 

 25 by more than 4. The table would have been an invaluable guide to 

 students who were seeking the easiest way to get high grades. It was 

 in fact a table of chances. 



As a result of this wholesome publicity, the instructors in 1910 

 showed an even closer approximation to the adopted scheme of distri- 

 bution. This means that we come nearer to knowing what a grade 

 stands for at the University of Missouri than at any other institution 

 in the country. 



Replies from 58 members of the faculty of the University of Mis- 

 souri in 1910 show that 51 approve of the general principle of standard- 

 izing grades and 4 do not approve ; only 1 reports that he does not aim 

 to have his grades conform to the system in the long average; 21 tend 

 in grading large, elementary classes to give low marks and offset them 

 by higher marks given to advanced classes, 20 do not; 15 think that 



