Source B: GPA Data
AuburnUniversity1988 / 2.60
1989 / 2.62
1990 / 2.66
1991 / 2.68
1992 / 2.69
1993 / 2.69
1994 / 2.70
1995 / 2.72
1996 / 2.73
1997 / 2.76
Source: Internal University document
Cumulative GPA, all students.
University of Florida
Source:
Fall term, all undergraduates.
1989 / 2.88
1990 / 2.89
1991 / 2.89
1992 / 2.94
1993 / 2.96
1994 / 2.97
1995 / 2.98
1996 / 3.04
1997 / 3.06
1998 / 3.08
1999 / 3.13
2000 / 3.15
2001 / 3.19
University of Texas at Austin
Source: Internal University documents
Inflation/Inflation.html
Freshmen only
1986 / 2.46
1987 / 2.44
1988 / 2.41
1989 / 2.48
1990 / 2.53
1991 / 2.54
1992 / 2.59
1993 / 2.68
1994 / 2.70
1995 / 2.72
/ Georgia Institute of Technology
Source:
Insitutional Research and Planning
Undergraduate cumulative GPA,
Fall term.
1972 / 2.45
1973 / 2.46
1974 / 2.45
1975 / 2.44
1976 / 2.47
1977 / 2.48
1978 / 2.50
1979 / 2.52
1980 / 2.56
1981 / 2.58
1982 / 2.58
1983 / 2.58
1984 / 2.57
1985 / 2.60
1986 / 2.60
1987 / 2.59
1988 / 2.58
1989 / 2.60
1990 / 2.64
1991 / 2.66
1992 / 2.74
1993 / 2.76
1994 / 2.79
1995 / 2.78
1996 / 2.80
1997 / 2.82
1998 / 2.84
1999 / 2.79
2000 / 2.82
2001 / 2.85
2002 / 2.86
LouisianaStateUniversity
Source: Internal University document
Based on percent grade awarded calibrated using
the DukeUniversity data set. Accuracy estimated
to be within 0.03.
Data are for the entire academic year.
1965 / 2.44
1984 / 2.67
1991 / 2.83
2001 / 2.95
/ University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill
Source: For 1967-1998,
Data are for Fall Semester, all undergraduates.
1967 / 2.39
1968 / 2.43
1969 / 2.45
1970 / 2.51
1971 / 2.56
1972 / 2.61
1973 / 2.66
1974 / 2.69
1975 / 2.72
1976 / 2.74
1977 / 2.72
1978 / 2.71
1979 / 2.70
1980 / 2.69
1981 / 2.69
1982 / 2.68
1983 / 2.68
1984 / 2.68
1985 / 2.67
1986 / 2.67
1987 / 2.69
1988 / 2.72
1989 / 2.76
1990 / 2.83
1991 / 2.83
1992 / 2.85
1993 / 2.91
1994 / 2.88
1995 / 2.88
1996 / 2.90
1997 / 2.93
1998 / 2.94
1999 / 2.93
2000 / 2.95
2001 / 2.98
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/ / / Who makes the grade? /Evidence of grade inflation at Ivy League schools:
- In 1966, 22% of Harvard undergraduate students earned A's. By 1996, that figure rose to 46%. That same year, 82% of Harvard seniors graduated with honors.
- In 1973, 31% of all grades at Princeton were A's. By 1997 that rose to 43%. In 1997, only 12% of all grades given at Princeton were below the B range.
When a report found recently that eight out of every 10 Harvard students graduate with honors and nearly half receive A's in their courses, the news prompted plenty of discussion and more than a few jokes. But is grade inflation worth worrying about?
Really smart students probably deserve really high grades. Moreover, tough graders could alienate their students. Plus, tough grading makes a student less likely to get into graduate school, which could make Harvard look bad in college rankings.
All are among reasons cited by professors in explaining why grade inflation is nothing to worry about. And all are insufficient justification for the practice. College-grade inflation — which is probably an extension of the well-documented grade inflation in high schools — is a problem. And it extends well beyond Harvard.
Fewer than 20% of all college students receive grades below a B-minus, according to a study released this week by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. That hardly seems justified at a time when a third of all college students arrive on campus so unprepared that they need to take at least one remedial course.
The report sifts through several possible causes for the inflated grades. Among them:
A holdover practice from the 1960s, when professors knew that F's triggered a draft notice and a trip to Vietnam.
An influx of more students, including some minorities, who are less prepared for college work. Grading leniency is believed to encourage their continued academic participation and promote self-esteem.
Evaluation systems in which students grade professors, thereby providing an incentive for teachers to go easy on their future evaluators.
An explosion in the number of overburdened adjunct professors who lack the time to evaluate each student more accurately.
The authors of the report cast doubt on several of those explanations, including the influx of minorities. They barely touch on an obvious explanation offered by several professors: Families paying more than $30,000 a year for a college education expect something more for their money than a report card full of gentleman's Cs.
More important than the reasons for inflated grades is the impact they have.
When all students receive high marks, graduate schools and business recruiters simply start ignoring the grades. That leads the graduate schools to rely more on entrance tests. It prompts corporate recruiters to depend on a "good old boy/girl" network in an effort to unearth the difference between who looks good on paper and who is actually good.
Put to disadvantage in that system are students who traditionally don't test as well or lack connections. In many cases, those are the poor and minority students who are the first in their families to graduate from college. No matter how hard they work, their A's look ordinary. Viewed in that light, the fact that 50% of all Harvard students now get A's is a troubling problem.
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In October 2001 the Boston Globe released an article entitled Harvard’s Quiet Secret: Rampant Grade Inflation. The article reported a record 91% of Harvard University students were awarded honors during the spring graduation. Said one student, Trevor Cox, “I’ve coasted on far higher grades than I deserve. It’s scandalous. You can get very good grades and earn honors, without ever producing quality work.”
Previously, Harvard’s Dr. Harvey Mansfield spoke out publicly against grade inflation in the April 2001 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education. The article Grade Inflation: It’s Time to Face the Facts reveals a willingness on his part to take a public stand on the issue. In Professor Mansfield’s words “There is something inappropriate--almost sick--in the spectacle of mature adults showering young people with unbelievable praise. We are flattering our students in our eagerness to get their good opinion. American colleges used to set their own expectations. Now, increasingly, they react to student expectations.” Additional recent commentaries include: “Once graduates enter the job market, they discover they can’t bank on those undeserved grades.” (Christian Science Monitor, November 6, 2001).
“The effect of grade inflation is a devaluing of undergraduate degrees.” (Levine and Cureton, 1998). “…it is a societal trend to de-emphasize competition and make people feel better about themselves.” (Dr. Perry Zirkel, Lehigh University). A “bachelor of arts degree in 1997 may not be the equal of a graduation certificate from an academic high school in 1947” (Wall Street Journal, January 30, 1997).
In February 2002, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences published results of a two year study on grade inflation in American colleges and universities conducted by Henry Rosovsky and Mathew Hartley. The report Evaluation and the Academy: Are We Doing the Right Thing? finds grade inflation existent nationwide. Selected quotes include: “compression in grades will create a system of grades in which A’s predominate and in which letters (of recommendation) consist primarily of praise. Meaningful distinctions will have disappeared.”
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Daylan Tatz, a Princeton junior, imagines sitting in a seminar and thinking, "OK, there are 10 people here. Only 3.5 people are going to get A's [or A-minuses]." Those calculations weren't on his mind in 2003-04, when marks of A or A-minus made up about 47 percent of undergraduate grades at Princeton. But starting in fall 2004, Princeton will reduce that number to 35 percent, roughly the level between 1973 and 1992. "I think students will be motivated to work harder and learn more by getting accurate information about the quality of their work," says Nancy Weiss Malkiel, Princeton's undergraduate dean.
Princeton is the first college to formally curb grade inflation, which plagues many schools. When Stuart Rojstaczer, a professor of environmental science at Duke, collected data on grading practices at 83 colleges, he found that 79 of them had experienced "significant" grade inflation in the past few decades. Grades at selective private schools are especially high. A 2003 Princeton study found that marks of A and A-minus accounted for 44 to 55 percent of grades at the Ivy League colleges, MIT, Stanford and the University of Chicago.
While some faculty and administrators claim students deserve their high marks, others see grade inflation as a problem. Amherst president Anthony Marx notes that as grades rise, they become less useful to students, graduate schools and employers. Faculty committees at Amherst are discussing how to confront grade inflation, Marx says, but it's too soon to tell what steps they may take. He admires that Princeton has confronted the issue, but he worries that using such a "blunt instrument to impose a curve" could discourage students from exploring unfamiliar subjects.
Several schools--including Harvard, Stanford and the University of Miami--try to keep grades in line by informally pressing faculty. After evaluating this method for five years, Princeton faculty and administrators decided that only a university-wide standard would work. "Otherwise we have what [the department chairs] called a collective-action problem," Malkiel says. "There would be no incentive for the faculty in any single academic department to grade more responsibly if faculty in other departments were left free to grade much more liberally."
But a handful of schools have managed to keep grades constant without resorting to university-wide directives. At ReedCollege in Oregon, the average GPA has hovered around 2.9 for more than 20 years. "This really reflects the tradition and culture of the college," says Peter Steinberger, dean of the faculty. "The faculty feels the best way to teach students is to evaluate their work honestly." Reed's unusual grading policy may also play a role in curbing inflation. The college does not regularly report grades--students must ask to see them--and it does not award academic honors like cum laude or valedictorian.
Reed students seem unconcerned about strict grading practices, and Princeton undergraduates may not worry either. Tough grading is unlikely to hurt students applying for jobs, graduate schools or fellowships. "Schools that are not part of this inflation trend we certainly make note of," says Andy Cornblatt, dean of admissions at GeorgetownUniversityLawSchool. Recruiters at Accenture and Goldman Sachs say they also recognize that different schools have different grading cultures, and they consider this when hiring graduates and student interns.
Still, Tatz, the Princeton junior, worries that the new policy will make students more competitive. "Am I one of the top 3.5 people in this class?" he asks. "I'm afraid I'm going to have that running through my mind the whole term." One piece of advice: focus on learning something instead.
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One of the greatest concerns of college administrators nationwide since the 1970s has been politely called "grade inflation." It refers to the granting of excessive percentages of superior grades to students, making an A or B the average grade rather than the indication of outstanding achievement. More recently, some high profile institutions like Harvard and Princeton have been in the spotlight for their efforts to reverse this documented trend. Our reaction at Saint Anselm College: We can show you how to do it.
Fr. Peter Guerin, who was dean of the college for 25 years, said in arecent interview : "One of the greatest disservices educators can do is give grades that aren't earned. It gives students a false and distorted evaluation of their abilities and achievements, and it weakens the value of the college diploma." Critics argue that students are simply getting smarter and their grades should reflect that. Yet, according to the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, over the last 30 years across the country, SAT scores of entering students have declined and one-third of freshmen are enrolled in at least one remedial course. Meanwhile, a study by a Duke University professor indicates that grade point averages (on a 4.0 scale) have increased more than a half-point since 1970.
The integrity of a Saint Anselm degree is grounded in the hard work and sacrifice required to achieve it. Sustaining that integrity is at the heart of the work that all of us at the college, particularly the faculty, do on a daily basis. The current Dean of the College Fr. Augustine Kelly has continued the tradition by closely monitoring grade distribution and keeping faculty honest in their evaluation of students.
Fair grading is not simply an administrative mandate on our campus. It's an ethical issue that gets at the very core of academic integrity nationwide. Whether at Saint Anselm, an Ivy League university or a local community college, to pretend that an average student has mastered a subject in an above average way is simply dishonest. While it may be perceived as a boost to a student's self-esteem, in fact, it prevents the student from honestly assessing his or her academic success. Honest grading demands that faculty remain committed to the cause in a consumer-driven society that includes students who believe they are entitled to good grades because they and their families are paying tuition.
While there is certainly pressure on both professors and administrators to accede to these distorted expectations, colleges and universities have the responsibility to honestly assign grades that students earn. The academy must set the bar high on standards and accountability. In fact, market research conducted for Saint Anselm College in 2002-03 indicated that among college and university characteristics that students valued was a "tough grading policy that rewards good work without inflating grades."
While it is true that this concept does not sit well with all students, those who complain are usually the ones who think their peers at other institutions are "benefiting" from more lenient grading practices. I have found that the majority of Saint Anselm alumni appreciate the rigor with which their undergraduate degree was earned. Some write years later to thank a professor or the dean for the work ethic and standards they developed as a result of their Saint Anselm experience.
Increasingly, college graduates compete in a global economy. For many of these well-educated individuals, their work will be judged against that of peers in China and India, for example, who cost employers a fraction of their American counterparts. If our students are fooled into believing, because of grade inflation, that their competencies are greater than they actually are, they may be handicapped when they are called to compete on the worldwide stage of today's corporations.
I recall reading a piece by a physics professor who was appalled at the pressure he received from students, parents and university administrators to assign more A's. His answer: these students will someday graduate and be expected to design buildings, dams and bridges. Whether they have truly learned the material could be a matter of life and death. The same could be said of Saint Anselm graduates who are researchers, nurses and surgeons affiliated with elite medical facilities like Johns Hopkins, Tufts and Harvard. I can't speak for everyone, but if I'm headed for the operating room, I'll take the surgeon who earned his or her "A" the honest way.
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Karen of Sutter CA (6/4/03):
I attended University of Phoenix for five classes. I have found that they literally give A's away. At first I thought that I was just being too hard on myself and that I really did deserve the A. Although things seemed too easy in my first three classes I continued to enroll. In my fourth class it was obvious that I received an A on a couple of assignments that I shouldn't have - I had left out some things, misspelled some words etc. I thought it was the teacher and decided to continue.
Then in my fifth class, I knew for a fact that things were amiss. Speaking to some of my fellow classmates, they had seen the same type of things. When I received my grade report I couldn't believe it. I had gotten 100% on two assignments that I didn't turn in, my groups research paper - which was a day late - received a 98%, even though we didn't include a reference list (the class was an English Composition class), it was a day late, and the word count was about 100 words short. I quickly realized that I could continue my education with Phoenix and receive straight A's; however, I also know that I would never hire someone based on their education received at Phoenix. I have since moved on.
I don't believe there will be any consequences for me, however as I stated, I would never hire a person based on their education from the University of Phoenix.
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Introduction: Grade inflation in higher education has been a hot button issue for at least the last twenty years. Recently grade inflation has become even more significant as some prominent institutions have attempted to deal with their escalating GPAs. The degree of grade inflation at some prestigious colleges and universities can be staggering. At Harvard in 1992, 91 percent of all undergraduate grades were B- or higher. In 1993, 83.6 percent of all Harvard seniors graduated with honors. At Stanford, typically only 6 percent of all students' grades were Cs. The university, until recently, did not permit an F grade. At Mankato State, the percentage of seniors who graduate with honors is around 25 percent. The honors' rate for individual colleges ranges between 20 and 40 percent. Last fall term, the average GPA for our undergraduates was 2.93, nearly a B average. The average GPA in the colleges was fairly consistent, ranging from 2.86 to 3.08.