But That Is Unfair Professor: Using a Grade Structure to Help Students Understand Income Quintiles

Abstract

Economic instructors exploring issues of income disparities will often be facing students who are apathetic towards the topic. Although income disparities have grown in the US, the university experience is still overwhelmingly dominated by students coming from middle and upper class families who will rarely have personal experiences with poverty which may be part of the reason why so many students lack interest. By suggesting that a flat uniform grade distribution system will be used in the class, students often become frightened by the inevitable outcome that a large percent of the class will automatically receive low grades. This emotional reaction can then be used as an anchoring point for students to recognize the inevitability of poverty with respect to capitalist systems. This method almost always provokes heated and interesting classroom conversations and forces many students to rethink the issue of income inequality in the US.

Keywords:

• income distribution
• economic education
• teaching methods
• income quintiles

Notes

1 An example of how to read this table is that 61.7% of those 1988 eighth graders who were in the bottom test score group do not attend PSE, 26.7 attended an institution with less than a four-year degree and 11.6% attended a four-year institution. Rows sum to 100% (approximately because of rounding). In addition, 33.8% of our sample is in the bottom test score group.

2 Rounding error makes this total to 100.1%.

3 An example of just such a visceral response occurred when this method was employed during an introductory class at a small, private liberal arts college in the mountain west. The tension built by this method in the class resulted in one of the students getting up and starting to walk towards the door. The student stated that if the instructor was going to employ such an unfair grading system it was the student’s intent to drop the class. At this point the instructor had to inform the students that this was a teaching method. The tension in the student and in the class dissipated quickly. However the intensity of curiosity did not diminish during that class period, nor did it diminish for duration of the school term. In fact the student eventually decided to become an economics major.

4 This method of instruction has been employed at small private liberal arts colleges and at large public institutions. On almost every occasion when the students are informed that the grade distribution was only a teaching tool the class tension is broken and the result is laughter and sighs of relief. However the interest in the topic and level of participation seems to remain higher than during other lectures.

5 This method has been used at private liberal arts institutions and large public universities. Used in the manner described here it has worked well with students coming from most demographic backgrounds. The information on the impact of this method comes from its use at a large public institution. although evidence from student evaluations suggests equal impact at other institutions.

6 Regulations on the use of students in research require that any survey done in classrooms on teaching methods be done in a form that maintains anonymity and is solely voluntary. Thus the numbers offered here only give rough estimates of general impressions and fail to include responses from some participants who chose not to take the survey. However the percentage of participants choosing to not take the survey was extremely small. (three students). Also one student who took the survey did not reply to all answers (question 5).

7 Due to human subject concerns respondents are not required to answer all questions. One responded chose not to give an answer to question 5 and the result is that there are only 148 responses to this question.