Fifteen years ago, Omega University implemented a new procedure that encouraged students to evaluate the teaching effectiveness of all their professors. Since that time, Omega professors have begun to assign higher grades in their classes, and overall student grade averages at Omega have risen by 30 percent. Potential employers, looking at this dramatic rise in grades, believe that grades at Omega are inflated and do not accurately reflect student achievement; as a result, Omega graduates have not been as successful at getting jobs as have graduates from nearby Alpha University. To enable its graduates to secure better jobs, Omega University should terminate student evaluation of professors.
Write a response in which you discuss what specific evidence is needed to evaluate the argument and explain how the evidence would weaken or strengthen the argument.
Potential employers believes that grades at Omega university are inflated due to the student evaluation of professors and this do not reflect student’s achievement, which has led to students not being able to secure better jobs, this is the saying that “correlation is not causation”. The argument shows that the potential employers believes that if omega university should terminate student evaluation of professors, they would be able to secure better jobs. Certain evidences are needed to evaluate this argument.
The first evidence that needs to be checked is the 15 years the potential employers evaluated. The performance of the student within a range of 5-10 years before the implementation of the evaluation could show the level of increase or decrease in the grades of the students. The grades of the students might have risen within these years which was not evaluated before considering if the evaluation of professors had to do with the grade increase.
There was no data that was used in evaluating the grading of the students and also the increase in the grade averages. there was no proof that if the evaluation of the professors is stopped, there would be an increase or decrease in the grades of the students. 30% increase in the grade averages might have been based on the results of 10% of the students of the university. Another evidence is a survey showing the level of performance of the students within the period of the evaluation and also before the period of evaluation, this survey should cover 95% of the students of the school before a general conclusion could be made.
The potential employers only considered the evaluation of the professors as an increase in the grading system however, certain questions are needed to be asked from the school authority such as: if other policies were implemented within that period? The outcome of the grades of the students every other time an evaluation of professors is done? Has the school ever considered trying to stop the evaluation and see if there is a difference in the grades of the students? These questions help to prove that the evaluation might not be the only reason for an increase in the grades of the students.
Finally, the evidence of the results from previous years before the implementation of the evaluation of professors should be looked into, survey from the students on their level of performance and also questions about other policies being asked from the school authority would help in evaluating if the evaluation of the professors led to an increase in the grades of the students. This would determine if the evaluation should be terminated or not and how it will have effect on the students securing better jobs.
Comments
e-rater score report
Attribute Value Ideal
Final score: 4.0 out of 6
Category: Good Excellent
No. of Grammatical Errors: 7 2
No. of Spelling Errors: 0 2
No. of Sentences: 15 15
No. of Words: 455 350
No. of Characters: 2224 1500
No. of Different Words: 154 200
Fourth Root of Number of Words: 4.619 4.7
Average Word Length: 4.888 4.6
Word Length SD: 2.722 2.4
No. of Words greater than 5 chars: 162 100
No. of Words greater than 6 chars: 118 80
No. of Words greater than 7 chars: 100 40
No. of Words greater than 8 chars: 61 20
Use of Passive Voice (%): 0 0
Avg. Sentence Length: 30.333 21.0
Sentence Length SD: 14.008 7.5
Use of Discourse Markers (%): 0.6 0.12
Sentence-Text Coherence: 0.478 0.35
Sentence-Para Coherence: 0.478 0.50
Sentence-Sentence Coherence: 0.244 0.07
Number of Paragraphs: 1 5
Grammar and spelling errors:
Line 2, column 275, Rule ID: ENGLISH_WORD_REPEAT_BEGINNING_RULE
Message: Three successive sentences begin with the same word. Reword the sentence or use a thesaurus to find a synonym.
...decrease in the grades of the students. The grades of the students might have risen...
^^^
Line 3, column 120, Rule ID: UPPERCASE_SENTENCE_START
Message: This sentence does not start with an uppercase letter
Suggestion: There
...lso the increase in the grade averages. there was no proof that if the evaluation of ...
^^^^^
Transition Words or Phrases used:
also, finally, first, however, if, look, so, such as
Attributes: Values AverageValues Percentages(Values/AverageValues)% => Comments
Performance on Part of Speech:
To be verbs : 26.0 19.6327345309 132% => OK
Auxiliary verbs: 14.0 12.9520958084 108% => OK
Conjunction : 9.0 11.1786427146 81% => OK
Relative clauses : 11.0 13.6137724551 81% => OK
Pronoun: 19.0 28.8173652695 66% => OK
Preposition: 75.0 55.5748502994 135% => OK
Nominalization: 27.0 16.3942115768 165% => OK
Performance on vocabulary words:
No of characters: 2268.0 2260.96107784 100% => OK
No of words: 455.0 441.139720559 103% => OK
Chars per words: 4.98461538462 5.12650576532 97% => OK
Fourth root words length: 4.61852021839 4.56307096286 101% => OK
Word Length SD: 2.80991396157 2.78398813304 101% => OK
Unique words: 158.0 204.123752495 77% => More unique words wanted.
Unique words percentage: 0.347252747253 0.468620217663 74% => More unique words wanted or less content wanted.
syllable_count: 711.9 705.55239521 101% => OK
avg_syllables_per_word: 1.6 1.59920159681 100% => OK
A sentence (or a clause, phrase) starts by:
Pronoun: 5.0 4.96107784431 101% => OK
Article: 7.0 8.76447105788 80% => OK
Subordination: 0.0 2.70958083832 0% => More adverbial clause wanted.
Conjunction: 0.0 1.67365269461 0% => OK
Preposition: 0.0 4.22255489022 0% => More preposition wanted as sentence beginning.
Performance on sentences:
How many sentences: 16.0 19.7664670659 81% => Need more sentences. Double check the format of sentences, make sure there is a space between two sentences, or have enough periods. And also check the lengths of sentences, maybe they are too long.
Sentence length: 28.0 22.8473053892 123% => The Avg. Sentence Length is relatively long.
Sentence length SD: 82.843767682 57.8364921388 143% => OK
Chars per sentence: 141.75 119.503703932 119% => OK
Words per sentence: 28.4375 23.324526521 122% => OK
Discourse Markers: 3.25 5.70786347227 57% => More transition words/phrases wanted.
Paragraphs: 5.0 5.15768463074 97% => OK
Language errors: 2.0 5.25449101796 38% => OK
Sentences with positive sentiment : 10.0 8.20758483034 122% => OK
Sentences with negative sentiment : 3.0 6.88822355289 44% => More negative sentences wanted.
Sentences with neutral sentiment: 3.0 4.67664670659 64% => OK
What are sentences with positive/Negative/neutral sentiment?
Coherence and Cohesion:
Essay topic to essay body coherence: 0.290126788771 0.218282227539 133% => OK
Sentence topic coherence: 0.123190232474 0.0743258471296 166% => OK
Sentence topic coherence SD: 0.0618179780895 0.0701772020484 88% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence: 0.194072668755 0.128457276422 151% => OK
Paragraph topic coherence SD: 0.0205767935897 0.0628817314937 33% => Paragraphs are similar to each other. Some content may get duplicated or it is not exactly right on the topic.
Essay readability:
automated_readability_index: 16.2 14.3799401198 113% => OK
flesch_reading_ease: 43.06 48.3550499002 89% => OK
smog_index: 11.2 7.1628742515 156% => OK
flesch_kincaid_grade: 14.2 12.197005988 116% => OK
coleman_liau_index: 11.9 12.5979740519 94% => OK
dale_chall_readability_score: 7.59 8.32208582834 91% => OK
difficult_words: 74.0 98.500998004 75% => More difficult words wanted.
linsear_write_formula: 11.5 12.3882235529 93% => OK
gunning_fog: 13.2 11.1389221557 119% => OK
text_standard: 12.0 11.9071856287 101% => OK
What are above readability scores?
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Rates: 50.0 out of 100
Scores by essay e-grader: 3.0 Out of 6
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Note: the e-grader does NOT examine the meaning of words and ideas. VIP users will receive further evaluations by advanced module of e-grader and human graders.