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Work in progress...

Don't be alarmed - it's still the same site, just looks a little different. After three years, I figured the design could stand to be updated (if you usually get my posts via email or in a reader, ignore this). Over the next few weeks, I'm planning to clean up my labels so it will be easier to find old posts on related topics and just get things a little more organized around here. Yay for summer!

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When is an exam "too hard"?

By now, you may have heard about the biology professor at Louisiana State (Baton Rouge) who was removed from teaching an intro course where "more than 90 percent of the students... were failing or had dropped the class." The majority of the comments on the Inside Higher Ed story about it are supportive of the professor, particularly given that it seems like the administration did not even talk to her about the situation before acting. I tend to fall in the "there's got to be more to the story so I'll reserve judgment" camp but the story definitely struck a nerve with me, partly because I recently spent 30 minutes "debating" with a student about whether the last midterm was "too hard" and the whole conversation was super-frustrating. To give some background: I give three midterms and a cumulative final, plus have clicker points and Aplia assignments that make up about 20% of the final grade. I do not curve individual exams but will cu...

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