College and University Blog
College Grade Inflation: More Students Earning an A for Effort
Although President Barack Obama and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan started a 鈥渃ollege for all鈥� campaign to of having the most college graduates in the world by 2020, recent studies allege that most undergraduates aren鈥檛 learning much during their first two years of college.
College Students Not Learning Much Despite Good Grades
The book was compiled from student survey responses, transcript data, and results from the Collegiate Learning Assessment, a standardized test taken by college students in their first semester and at the end of their second year, but Richard Arum and Josipa Roska鈥檚 caused quite a stink when it was released earlier this year.
鈥淭hey might graduate, but they are failing to develop the higher-order cognitive skills that it is widely assumed college students should master. These findings are sobering and should be a cause for concern,鈥� Lee Shulman, former president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, said of today鈥檚 college students in a January 2011 article.
Some research even claims that most college graduates are ill-prepared for the workforce, causing many employers to prefer job over those who only hold a bachelor鈥檚, suggesting that bachelor鈥檚 degree recipients aren鈥檛 all they鈥檙e cracked up to be.
What is Grade Inflation?
College grade inflation, which happens when higher grades are given for work that would have received lower grades in the past, is most likely contributing to the problem.
reports that a recently-released study from Stuart Rojstaczer, a retired Duke University professor who has been researching the evolution of grading in colleges for several years and even created the website to share his findings, shows that the most common grade at four-year U.S. colleges and universities is an A and the second most common grade is a B, suggesting that grade inflation is running rampant on college campuses.
Rojstaczer, who conducted the research for his latest study with Furman University professor Christopher Healy, found that roughly 43 percent of all letter grades at U.S. colleges and universities given are A鈥檚, an increase of 28 percentage points since 1960 and 12 percentage points since 1988.
Brief History of Grade Inflation
Rojstaczer himself offered a brief history of grade inflation in a 2003 article. He stated that A鈥檚 are 鈥渃ommon as dirt鈥� at today鈥檚 universities because it鈥檚 become so difficult for professors to grade honestly.
A鈥檚 became the dominant grade while C鈥檚 began to diminish in the 1960s. The trend subsided slightly in the 1970s, and reappeared full-force in the 1980s. He explained that D鈥檚 and F鈥檚, typically considered 鈥渁cademic disaster,鈥� began to disappear during the Vietnam era because failing college meant becoming eligible for the draft.
Pros and Cons of Grade Inflation
Mark Bauerlein, a staff writer, says that 鈥渙f all the problems with higher education, this one has been ignored for far too long鈥� in regards to grade inflation.
It鈥檚 no shocker that students like receiving A鈥檚 and feeling proud. Some students even feel 鈥渆ntitled鈥� to good grades and professors oblige, according to a 2009 article.
As consumers who are paying to receive an education, they feel that earning an A or B is their right鈥攅ven though they are hitting the books far less often than students of the past. A conducted by two University of California professors found that the average college student in 1961 studied 24 hours a week. Today鈥檚 average student studies 14 hours per week.
The National Association of Scholars article also points out that many of today鈥檚 college professors experienced the turbulent 1960s and 1970s, giving them firsthand knowledge just how disruptive and even dangerous college students can become when they鈥檙e irritated over grades. Some professors at private colleges have to be cautious with grading for fear of being known as a hard grader, losing students and endangering their own departments, salaries, and even jobs.
Many Professors Don鈥檛 Like Grading
An adjunct English professor writing under the pseudonym Professor X pondered if he should feel guilty for failing students in a recent online except from his book In the Basement of the Ivory Tower, explaining that 鈥淭here is something in the human psyche that shrinks at sitting in judgment of another鈥檚 efforts.鈥�
鈥淲e don鈥檛 like to admit that one student may be smarter, sharper, harder working, better prepared, more energetic, more painstaking — simply a better student — than another. So we level the playing field,鈥� he explained.
Colleges Attempting to Stop Grade Inflation
Colleges and universities are well aware that grade inflation is a problem, but what are they doing about it? A 2009 article, also by grade inflation expert Rojstaczer, states that grades continue to go up regardless of the quality of education. Princeton University set new guidelines to limit A鈥檚 on average to 35 percent of students in a class, which seems to be working. Grades at Princeton began dropping while academic rigor started to make a comeback.
Universities are Outsourcing Grading to Evaluators
Considering Professor X鈥檚 stance that professors do not like hurting anyone鈥檚 feelings by issuing bad grades even if students deserve them, some colleges and universities are outsourcing the task of grading.
According to Western Governors University recently hired 300 adjunct professors that do nothing but grade students鈥� work. 鈥淭hey think like assessors, not professors,鈥� Diane Johnson, who is in charge of the university’s cadre of graders, told The Chronicle. 鈥淭he evaluators have no contact with the students at all. They don’t know them. They don’t know what color they are, what they look like, or where they live. Because of that, there is no temptation to skew results in any way other than to judge the students’ work.鈥�
Sounds good in theory, but considering that is an online institution, it鈥檚 easy to imagine that even the students 鈥渞egular professors鈥� don鈥檛 know much about them, either.
a traditional brick-and-mortar school, is also outsourcing the grading of some essays鈥攖o computers. Due to improvements in artificial intelligence techniques, software can now grade essays. A recent article in the UCF student newspaper titled suggests that students aren鈥檛 too thrilled with the practice.
Melissa Rhone earned her Bachelor of Music in Education from the University of Tampa. She resides in the Tampa Bay area and enjoys writing about college, pop culture, and epilepsy awareness.