Grade Quotas

From time to time I blog on the use of informal quota and rotation systems in grading and other "merit" driven aspects of the universities, a practice that appears to be widespread. For example, a couple of years ago I remarked to a colleague at a university graduation ceremony that it was notable that our department had won all the student awards that year, things like valedictorian, and was told that the award was rotated between departments. No merit involved. Today's piece in the Taipei Times on an article defending Kuo Kuan-ying gave a good example of these informal quotas at work:

The rebuttal, using Pan's byline, was titled “My Colleague Kuo Kuan-ying.” It dismissed criticism of Kuo Kuan-ying and explained why Kuo Kuan-ying received a “B” in his performance appraisal during his time at the GIO's Department of Motion Pictures.

The article said that as one of Kuo Kuan-ying's superiors responsible for evaluating his performance, he thought Kuo Kuan-ying should have received an “A.”

But Kuo Kuan-ying was willing to receive a “B” because of GIO conventions that limited the quota of “A” marks, which were usually given to younger colleagues, the author said.

In other words, the total number of A ratings is determined by an informal quota based on seniority.

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