Grade inflation
at Juniata?
Let’s talk about it.
SoTL Brown Bag Oct 3, 2012 – Anne Gilman
“Grade” + “Inflation”
We figure we know a lot about the first part already…
How about the second part?
Are college grades…
Increasing?
Losing value?
• A few factors
influencing the value of
a college grade:
o Change in rate of college
attendance
o Changes in number and types
of jobs available
• What about the
institution-internal value
of the grade?
o (a little more scope for
influence here, yes?)
So next we see if school GPA
correlates with ratio of accepted
applicants, or what?
-a social scientist who worked with
Bob at Kalamazoo
“It does seem hard to explain how faculty
complaints about student preparation are
increasing and the amount of time students
spend studying is decreasing at the same time
as grades are going up unless we assume there
is grade inflation.”
-- a humanities professor
What could be more
valuable than time?
• Something must be, in terms of awarding grades.
o Otherwise, we could just use stopwatches to calculate ‘em!
• Maybe a grade’s value is a little more complicated
than it might seem at first blush.
o (might this extend to the degree’s value as well? Hmmm… topic for
another day… But what about effort, talent, skill?)
and…
• What about IQ tests?
• Our students could be
getting better and
better at
a) …the skills we assess
b) …psyching out tests
c) …studying speedily
• If we’re measuring
against the right
content, then high
clusters of scores should
mean we’re
succeeding!
I do not believe that I have ever
been overly generous in doling
out grades in the A range. But I
will acknowledge that the floor
has risen, and I probably assign
some grades in the C range
where at least by the standard of
the College catalog I should be
assigning a D.
Grade inflation exists nation-wide
because faculty are happy when
their students are happy and
(sometimes) sincerely believe that
better grades mean more
motivated students and better
learning. The incentive structure
within most colleges also
encourages inflated grades…
Students view a C or D as a "failing" grade
so teachers are reluctant to give such grades.
A. Strongly perceived pressure to have
students in your own classes--job slots,
faculty effectiveness, and allocations of
departmental resources are measured in
part based on the numbers of bodies in
seats. You get more bodies if your class
GPA is higher. The department needs
them; the college needs them. B. Pressure
from students not to get below a B or Bbecause of credentialing needs or because
"all the children are above average"
(Garrison Keillor). C. Pressure from the
college over retention and college ratings.
It is extremely important that grades be an accurate
measure of student achievement and performance,
and grade inflation threatens the validity of the
grading system and casts doubt on the integrity and
credibility of our academic programs. For this reason,
grade inflation is a topic that should be taken
seriously. I wonder whether assessment would
currently be such a hot topic if there were a general
perception that grades accurately reflected student
outcomes achieved.
I think the whole notion of grade inflation is
problematic. It assumes a number of things
about teaching and learning that I don't
believe to be true: that learning is a
competition, that if students don't learn it is
their fault, and that if everyone in your class
gets A's you must not have tough standards.
Of course, we could decide
that grade inflation is not a
problem and simply rewrite
the grade descriptions in our
materials to match current
grading practices.
“I think that grade inflation is a problem both at this institution
and nationally partly because of the pressures created by the
"consumer-productization" of higher education. Pressures such as:
A) student evaluations weighing on tenure decisions (actually or
merely perceived)… B) departments and individual faculty feeling
the need to defend course offerings by keeping enrollments high…
C) interpersonal pressures to keep happy what seems to be a fair
percentage of students who come with a sense that they have the
"right" to choose what they want to take… and D) the sense that an
undergraduate education is not necessarily a process of learning
and growth, but a credential that is acquired which enables a
particular form of employment..”
-- a respondent
“Part of the problem is attributable to the fact
that we have no community consensus (or
discussion, for that matter) regarding how
grades function or what they mean. The other
part of the problem is that we must function
and compete in a system that suffers the same
ambiguities and inconsistencies, regarding
grades, that afflict us.”
-- a social science professor
“Grade” + “Inflation”
Maybe we know – or agree – less about
grades and their purposes
than we’d thought.
So let’s look at some more data!
Straight A's. IEP courses are skills
and knowledge based, so if students
master the skills and knowledge to
the appropriate level to earn an A,
that is ideal. I would fall over dead
for a class of students who could all
earn As. Of course, this would make
me a far less effective teacher.
In an intro level course (which is a
larger service course for my
department), I would expect the
overall grades to be relatively
normally distributed. In an upperlevel seminar (taken by
seniors...many who are in that POE),
I would expect grades to be skewed
higher...these students are the "best"
within our program and should
perform "better than average."
In my large (…) freshman class, I expect a normal distribution of scores. This
is based on the diversity of backgrounds and student abilities in a class of
this size. I set "C" as the average (mean) for the class. In actuality, I have seen
grades that tend towards a bi-modal distribution - a bolus of students at the
A/B grade range, with a pronounced aggregate at the sub-C range. I worry
that better students are not being challenged and get bored, while others
struggle mightily and are academically frustrated.
Where respondents* agreed:
• *26 Respondents
• Idealized distributions
displayed to preserve
anonymity.
• Results should be
instrcutive; they are NOT
strongly representative.
My grades are clumped…
They should spread out to
have a significant number of
Cs and even Ds but without
the current stigma attached
to those grades.
I don't have an ideal
grade distribution; I
have expectations for
each letter grade based
on the work I'm asking
them to do.
I do expect grades to reflect and
differentiate among different levels
of mastery of skills and content in
the course. In principle, I could have
a class in which all students earned a
grade of A, and I would not find that
upsetting. In reality I have never
had that experience.
The ideal grade distribution would be
all students with at least a "B" average,
which would indicate that they are all
mastering the material. However, that
is assuming that the "B" is achieved on
the basis of mastery and not due to
grade inflation.
I really don't think there is or even should be
an ideal grade distribution in my class. So are
we supposed to create exams to fit an
expected distribution to produce a certain
number of As, Bs, Cs etc?
Where respondents disagreed:
How do student career goals
skew our discussion?
Graduate schools in Acting care a little bit about
grades, and a lot about the skills and material they
bring to their audition. So the opening sentence,
"grades are essential" is pretty much in question for
me as an acting teacher. I don't particularly think
they are essential for me in many cases, beyond the
"policing qualities" they can have. When I grade
my students in an acting class, I don't grade them
on talent, but on their work ethic, their
preparedness, their professionalism, etc.
Enrollment patterns: Students
change pressures on professors.
• “only the strong
survive”
o Which departments can find
ample course enrollment for a
course like this?
o Which departments’ courses
would be nearly empty with this
approach? (just consider the
impact on the profs!)
• Some disciplines
require collaboration
o So pressures to keep enrollment
and attendance up come
from several sources.
…and their view?
• …or for today’s
purposes, how do
student views
influence how
instructors feel
about grading?
Such a difference:
• Students for whom the
material versus solely
the course’s grading
setup determines the
critical hurdles are
great to deal with!
Such a difference:
• Students whose sole or
primary question topic
centers around their
own score can surely
irritate, and possibly
intimidate.
I also think that many of us
want to be liked by our
students, and may fear that
grades get in the way of a style
of teaching that focuses on
interpersonal relationships…
• ..and it’s only human to
find complaints more
salient than praise!
So what next?
• Q: are we concerned about grade infl across or within
departments?
• Q: how do we consider students who drop?
• Q: are grades commodities? “system is perverse” – do they
even measure knowledge?
• Correlate w/number of medals awarded
• So much the final course grade does NOT tell us
• Do we want students to drop challenging classes?
• When grades are about the material they’re not
commodities.
• Q: What about those struggling students who do A effort and
turn in poor papers?
• How did the non-grading phase at JC work out? (students
demanded grades)
• Should we be transferring study-abroad grades as is?
Questions?
Big Thanks to…
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Jerry Kruse
A super-SoTL-friendly psych department near you
Jim Roney
Deb Roney
The R Core Development Team
All the survey respondents
The Lakso Fund (lunch!)
Attendees (you!)