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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Today's Grade-Inflated, Lake Wobegon World; Letter Grade of A Now Most
Common College Grade
In 1960, the average undergraduate grade awarded in the College of Liberal
Arts at the University of Minnesota was 2.27 on a four-point scale. In
other words, the average letter grade at the University of Minnesota in the
early 1960s was about a C+, and that was consistent with average grades at
other colleges and universities in that era. In fact, that average grade of
C+ (2.30-2.35 on a 4-point scale) had been pretty stable at America's
colleges going all the way back to the 1920s (see chart above from
GradeInflation.com, a website maintained by Stuart Rojstaczer, a retired
Duke University professor who has tirelessly crusaded for several decades
against "grade inflation" at U.S. universities).
By 2006, the average GPA at public universities in the U.S. had risen to 3.
01 and at private universities to 3.30. That means that the average GPA at
public universities in 2006 was equivalent to a letter grade of B, and at
private universities a B+, and it's likely that grades and GPAs have
continued to inflate over the last six years.
Grade inflation is back in the news, with a Twin Cities Star Tribune article
today "At U, concern grows that 'A' stands for average."
"A University of Minnesota chemistry professor has thrust the U into a
national debate about grade inflation and the rigor of college, pushing his
colleagues to stop pretending that average students are excellent and start
making clear to employers which students are earning their A's.
"I would like to state my own alarm and dismay at the degree to which grade
compression ... has infected some of our colleges," said Christopher Cramer,
chairman of the Faculty Consultative Committee. "I think we are at serious
risk, through the abandonment of our own commitment of rigorous academic
standards, of having outside standards imposed upon us."
National studies and surveys suggest that college students now get more A's
than any other grade even though they spend less time studying. Cramer's
solution -- to tack onto every transcript the percentage of students that
also got that grade -- has split the faculty and highlighted how tricky it
can be to define, much less combat, grade inflation."
MP: As one University of Minnesota undergraduate student explained the
rising GPA trend when evaluating a professor known as a rigorous grader, "We
live in a grade-inflated world." That University of Minnesota anthropology
professor Karen-Sue Taussig suspects that today's "grade-inflated world"
can be traced to the growing cost of a college degree, i.e. today's "tuition
-inflated world." As Taussig told the Star Tribune, "They're paying for it,
and they worked really hard, and they put in time, and therefore they think
they should get a good grade."
Last year, Professor Rojstaczer and co-author Christopher Healy published a
research article in the Teachers College Record titled "Where A Is Ordinary:
The Evolution of American College and University Grading, 1940–2009." The
main conclusion of the paper appears below (emphasis added), and is
illustrated by the chart below showing the rising share of A letter grades
over time at American colleges, from 15% in 1940 to 43% by 2008. Starting in
about 1998, the letter grade A became the most common college grade.
"Conclusion: Across a wide range of schools, As represent 43% of all letter
grades, an increase of 28 percentage points since 1960 and 12 percentage
points since 1988. Ds and Fs total typically less than 10% of all letter
grades. Private colleges and universities give, on average, significantly
more As and Bs combined than public institutions with equal student
selectivity. Southern schools grade more harshly than those in other regions
, and science and engineering-focused schools grade more stringently than
those emphasizing the liberal arts. It is likely that at many selective and
highly selective schools, undergraduate GPAs are now so saturated at the
high end that they have little use as a motivator of students and as an
evaluation tool for graduate and professional schools and employers."
MP: The connections among "grade inflation, "tuition inflation," "college
textbook inflation," and exponentially rising student loan debt are
important. Perhaps students find it easier to accept rising tuition, higher
textbook prices (many selling for $200-300 now), and $25,000 in average
student loan debt if they at least graduate with mostly As and a GPA above 3
.0? Even if they can't find a job, they can take pride in having "earned"
an inflated GPA? |
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