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...
"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."
8 comments:
yep...if it is this bad in college what in the world is it in K-12???
Darren -- have you read a book called "Wounded by School"? It is a fascinating read...
Thanks!
I have not heard of that book, but can look it up on Amazon.
Yeah, but where do they go once everyone gets a 4.0? Maybe preemptively awarding passing grades to classes when you sign up for them?
Might as well. If the grade has no relationship to your class standing then it's just a stamp on your passport indicating you've passed this way.
Probably won't have any impact on the cost of college though.
One of the ideas put forth in the linked article is that perhaps, because people are paying so much for higher education, they *expect* to get excellent *service* in the form of grades.
I am a "hard grader" in my high school. I teach US history, and the kids know that if they were at another school, my C would be an A. They have to memorize dates, have pop-quizzes, and must be able to read and hold intelligent converstations about political, economic and social theories. They also write 2-3 essays a week and short writings 3-5 times a week.
Makes me feel better about my 2.75 undergrad from the '70s.
It's "excellent service" only if a college education is nothing more then getting your passport stamped.
But higher ed has a problem that doesn't burden K-12 - competition.
Students/parents have to decide where to best spend their money and colleges have to maintain their reputations so as to attract the best students whose job it becomes, if they go on to graduate work, to help maintain the reputation of the school.
Government money helps complicate the relationship between customer and vendor but doesn't change the imperatives of the academic professionals. The professors still have to publish or perish and in the more rarefied realms of research you need lots of cheap, skilled labor - grad students. Smart grad students come from smart undergrads and smart undergrads want to go to good schools. That competition for talent helps counteract the magnetic pull towards mediocrity exerted by the K-12 system which is under no obligation to do much of anything, systemically.
It looks like the competitive impulse is gradually bending to that pull towards mediocrity. Too bad but there is hope.
Grade inflation is seeping down to the lower grades. Parents and students will fight to the death over two points. Parents hold back kids born in spring or summer from starting school so that they will be more competitive. Right now, I am one of the few teachers that gives a grade based on achievement. And you would not believe the grief I get when an honor student fails art because they don't do the work.
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