Spanish Class Gone Wrong

The following from the LA Times:

In June, the athletes were looking for Senora Rose Mary Ross, 73, a
grandmother and Spanish instructor with an engaging teaching style and a
generous grading philosophy — suddenly so popular that she had to take on two
classes at once.

Ross normally taught only Spanish 2 during the summer
but agreed to teach the Spanish 3 group in the same crowded classroom. Like many
other community college courses, her five-unit classes qualified for transfer to
USC and cost a fraction of the university tuition — $141 at Trade Tech compared
to about $5,500 two miles south.

And there was plenty of additional
motivation.

"Those USC kids told me, 'If I took this class at USC, I'd
get a D.' All of them said that," Ross said. But she is not apologetic.

"I've never given an easy grade in my life," she told The Times in a
recent interview. "You come to my class and work, and I see you want to learn,
I'll give you an A. I see some lazy ass, coming late all the time, acting like
he doesn't care, I won't give him an A. I'll give him a B."

She said a
primary goal was to make school a positive experience for students in an urban
neighborhood where financial pressures and job stress are common.

The
article does not show when this happened:


A Times review of the
25-student Spanish 3 class list shows that Ross, a USC graduate from the 1950s,
issued a B to five summer school students. All others got an A.

It was
that grade distribution that finally set off alarm bells up and down Figueroa.
Investigations and internal audits at both colleges ensued.

For USC,
just coming off probation after its athletic program was hit with sanctions over
academic fraud charges five years earlier, response was unequivocal. Officials
notified students late last year that transfers of Trade Tech Spanish 3 credits
to the university were rescinded and disallowed.

For Trade Tech, there
is lingering embarrassment and concern among staff that the incident will harm
the school's reputation.

"We need to do better," conceded Marcy
Drummond, Trade Tech's vice president of academic affairs.