Grade Inflation

Grade Inflation has increasingly became a bigger problem at Universities and colleges across the nation and has people stumped in the search for a cause and a solution. Going back about forty years, grades were a lot different. It was basically average to receive a “C” in your classes. A “C” was not frowned upon really at all, it was closer to expected. In these times, “A”s were rarely given out, making “A”s represent near perfection. Now, in today’s world, this is not the case. “A”s have become something that we expect, and anything else being unacceptable for some people. It has become a staple that in order to be successful in today’s world it is very important that you have this high GPA and “A” average. In my opinion, grade inflation is a product of the new competitive times we live in. I believe that students are inclined to work harder now, which in turn produces higher grades.

Entering this semester, I was aware of grade inflation but never really thought much about or realized how big of an issue it really was. I did not become interested in this issue until we read the works of Phil Primack and Stuart Rojstaczer. In Phil Primack’s “Doesn’t anybody get a “C” anymore”, Primack discusses the issue of grade inflation, and how grades are given out much more feely now as opposed to the past. One of the main points or claim that Primack makes in his article is that college students today, go into class expecting a “B” without doing much work. I can see where this statement is true at times. Sometimes I know that I can at least get a “B” in a class without putting forth much effort at all. But then on the other hand, there have been some classes where I must put forth maximum effort in order to receive a good grade, but these classes come a lot more often than the others. In my opion, grade inflation is happening not because teachers are getting easier, but the amount of competition has increased causing students to work harder and receive higher grades.  In Stuart Rojstaczer’s “Grade Inflation Gone Wild”, Rojstaczer discusses many of the same points that Primack discusses. After reading these two articles, I decided to research grade inflation, and try to find what the people believe the actual cause is, as well any possible solutions that are out there. 

In order to learn more about grade inflation, I did some research and found two articles that broadened my knowledge on the issue. One of my articles is “College Students' Evaluations of Teaching and Grade Inflation”. This article is a survey of college students, in which they asked to evaluate their teachers and then this was compared to their grades. This study was based on public, mid-sized, upper Midwest universities and involved over 900,000 students with the evaluations of over 37,000 course sections. The only thing about this study that could cause me problems, is that it is not as recent as I would want it be. It was based of the grades of 1980-1999.  In the survey, with outside variables controlled as much as possible, it turned out that there was a very significant relationship between the student evaluations and the expected grades. The article came to the conclusion that, although generally valid as measures of teaching effectiveness, college students' ratings of instruction may be used in ways that raise questions of consequential validity, specifically by encouraging grade inflation, was supported. The second article I used, is “Just Say 'A': Grade Inflation Undergoes Reality Check”. This article claims that Florida State University has an issue with grade inflation but discusses grade inflation at other major Universities too to get their point across. Throughout the article, they give evidence to this claim, as well as present possible solutions to solving this problem. The article starts by discussing grade inflation at Florida State University. They talk about the issue and describe what is being done to solve this issue. Then, they use this into transition to their next couple sections which discuss why grade inflation is a difficult issue to solve. These reasons include, the lack of high numbers of people that are concerned with this issue and the lack of leaders to make the necessary steps to fix this problem. After that, the article begins to discuss grade inflation at other schools. With doing this they provide statistics, strategies, and a discussion on what is working where. In one section, as they the author is discussing possible solutions to grade inflation, a successful strategy at Princeton University is brought up. In 2004, Princeton was discovered to be worst offender of grade inflation in Ivy League schools.  In order to fix this, they basically decided to restrict the amount of “A”s teachers could give out.  Each department had to keep the number of “A”s down to 35%  in order to lower grade inflation as well create consistency across departments. I disagree with this strategy, because I feel that students should get whatever grade they have earned. If all the students earns an “A” in the class, I believe they should all receive one.

Grade inflation, in my opinion is just a product of the new times. In today’s world, there is many more opportunities to learn more than in the past, with resources such as the internet. Also, there is so much more competition in higher education than in the past. With so many students receiving a high education, it is inevitable for the competition to increase. Another reason grade inflation exists in my opinion, is because of the amount of college prep we get before entering college. Most high schools now, are taking college courses in high school making us more ready for college and helping us get better grades. Grade inflation is not an issue in my mind. To me, all it is the outcome of increased effort students of today’s world are putting forth.

Bartlett, Thomas, and Paula Wasley. "Just Say 'A': Grade Inflation Undergoes Reality Check. (Cover Story)." Chronicle Of Higher Education 55.2 (2008): A1-A12. Academic Search Premier. Web. 6 Apr. 2015.

Eiszler, Charles F. "College Students' Evaluations of Teaching and Grade Inflation."Research in Higher Education : Journal of the Association for Institutional Research. 43.4 (2002): 483-501. Print.