I recently sent in my grades for a Duke University undergraduate course that I teach. There was only a little selection: A, A-minus, B-plus, B, and B-minus. There were no C’s of any kind, and no D’s or F’s either. It was a good class, but even when they aren’t, I simply reduce a grade or two, to scores ranging from A-minus to B-minus.
It’s been more than two years since I gave a C. That was around the moment I realized my grading system had grown outdated. The C, which was formerly widely accepted, has suddenly become the equivalent of a Cain mark on a college transcript. Since then, I’ve avoided C’s at all costs.
In college, how common is a C? Not only is C on the decline, but B, long the most popular grade at universities and colleges, has been displaced by the erstwhile symbol of excellence, the A.
For example, C’s currently account for less than 10% of all grades at Duke, which by all accounts is not a “leader” in grade inflation by any means. Given more than a quarter of the time in 1969, the C was a respectable thing. In the early 1990s, A’s beat B’s to the top of the popularity rankings for grades.
The dominance of the A and the decline of the C began in the 1960s, slowed in the 1970s, and then resurfaced in the 1980s. In the Vietnam era, when flunking out meant becoming draft eligible, the prior marks of academic failure, D and F, fell by the wayside. D’s and F’s now account for around 2% of all grades given at Duke, Pomona, Harvard, and other universities.
A review of grade inflation rates at the few institutions that are willing to publish such data reveals that grade-point averages are growing at a pace of roughly 0.15 points per decade on average. Except for the occasional self-destructive student who doesn’t bring in assignments or take examinations if exams are even given almost everyone on campus will be getting all A’s by mid-century if things continue at this rate.
Because it’s nearly impossible for a professor to grade honestly these days, A’s are as prevalent as dirt in universities. If I give some students the Cs they deserve in class, my class will have diminishing enrollments in the future. Low enrollments are interpreted as an indication of poor training in the business mentality of higher education. I’m not interested in being labeled a failure.
High grades are desired by both parents and students. Given that students are paying for an educational product, I am expected to respond to their desires not only to be properly informed, but also to obtain a favorable return for enrolling. As a result, I no longer give Cs, and neither do the majority of my coworkers. And I’m sure I’ll say the same thing about B’s at some point.
University officials, like stock market gurus discussing the Internet boom not long ago, come up with ludicrous justifications to explain grade inflation on occasion. Some leaders claim that we are educating more successfully, or that students are smarter and better than in earlier decades. These explanations are believed by many students and parents. They believe the phony flattery as genuine. Unlike high-tech stock prices, I don’t think the grade inflation bubble will collapse.
My job becomes more challenging as my grades rise. I need to find a way to get the most out of my pupils without using grades as an incentive. True, the absence of genuine grades might be a blessing for some students, especially those who have a strong internal motivation to study. A teacher with a large stick isn’t required for exceptional children. They require educators who will work with them as partners and facilitators in their learning.
However, not every student is as enthusiastic. So, when the most common grade is an A, I have to utilize different methods to urge them to learn: coax, softly persuade. And, to be honest, I don’t believe I have the psychological abilities necessary to approach my aim of providing excellent education to all of my pupils in this climate. If pressed, I believe many of my colleagues across the country would admit to a comparable lack of such abilities.
As a result, today’s classes have a high rate of absence and minimal student participation. In the lack of fair grading, our ability to provide a properly informed public in this country is harmed. Such a failure has enormous ramifications for a free society.
Does Duke have grade deflation?
D’s and F’s account for only 2% of all grades at Duke, Pomona, and Harvard. According to a Yale assessment, A or A-minus grades account for 62% of all Yale grades. As a result, there is considerable concern among elite institutions regarding grade inflation. (At community colleges and less selective universities, the tendency is less common.)
What colleges in the Ivy League have grade inflation?
Carleton and other premier universities recruit students who are accustomed to being at the top of their class. Carleton’s 2022 graduating class, for example, had 77 percent of students in the top 10% of their class and 95 percent in the top quartile.
As a result, many students at Carleton experience decreased grade attainment for the first time in their life.
Despite this, grade inflation at many top-tier universities has led to many students expecting all As.
The Ivy Leagues are the schools most frequently accused of grade inflating.
Brown University has the highest average GPA of 3.73, according to a 2018 study by RippleMatch, followed by Stanford, Harvard, and Columbia.
There are only As, Bs, and Cs at Brown, with no pluses or minuses, and no Ds or failing marks are reported on transcripts, resulting in such severe grade inflation.
What are the signs that my school has grade inflation?
It should be rather simple to determine whether or not your high school is affected by the grade inflation trend. If you search up your school’s average GPA online and it’s a 3.0 or higher, your school has a higher rate of grade inflation than the national average. Whether your institution employs weighted or unweighted GPAs also affects this. It’s realistic to expect the average GPA to be slightly higher if it employs weighted GPAs.
If your school is experiencing grade inflation, don’t be too concerned about making significant adjustments to your academic practices. Certain factors, however, are much more critical for pupils who attend high schools with considerable grade inflation. Taking challenging coursework is generally a good idea if you want to get into prestigious universities, but it’s especially important at this type of high school. If most students’ marks are artificially high, taking the most challenging classes you can is the greatest approach to demonstrate that you’re a cut above. Even if grade inflation is an issue, strong grades in these courses will impress universities by demonstrating that you went above and beyond to challenge yourself.
If you attend a school where grades are inflated, standardized test scores are much more essential. If colleges don’t trust your grades to offer them a whole picture of your academic talents, they’ll scrutinize your test scores more rigorously. It’s a good idea to study thoroughly for the SAT or ACT in order to achieve a high score that supports your excellent GPA.
Go forth and conquer the application process for college! Also, if you recognize the hairy arm in this photo, please contact the authorities since this man is wanted for the Sun’s murder.
Is grade inflation a problem in college?
Researchers who studied the relationship between grade inflation and college completion rates discovered that grade inflation accounts for a significant portion of the increase in college graduation rates since 1990.
“Grade inflation, like many policy levers, has costs and benefits,” the authors write in a new article published today in Education Next, an educational reform magazine. “We show that it resulted in a higher rate of college graduation. Grade inflation, on the other hand, may have negative consequences if it alters what students study in college. Our research emphasizes the necessity of considering grading policies as a critical college decision.”
A upcoming publication in the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics is based on research by Jeffrey T. Denning, an associate professor of economics at Brigham Young University, and four other academics from Brigham Young, Purdue, and Stanford Universities.
Is there grade inflation at Pepperdine?
We are a selective secondary school; students must apply and show proof of two years of musical experience. At UHS, we have high standards for student achievement, and while our kids do well, grade inflation is not a part of our culture.
Is there a problem with grade inflation at Yale?
If there’s one thing Yale professors can agree on, it’s that obtaining an A at Yale is far too easy.
According to a recent News poll, 92 percent of faculty believe grade manipulation exists at Yale. Sixty-two percent believe getting an A is too easy, whereas thirty percent believe grade inflation happens but is not extreme. Only 3% of faculty members indicated there is no grade inflation at their institution.
The poll was sent out in late August to members of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ 53 academic programs and departments, and 314 faculty members responded, resulting in a 36 percent response rate. This is the first in a three-part series that will look at faculty perspectives on a variety of topics, including politics, academics, and university administration. The results of the survey were not adjusted for bias.
It can be difficult to quantify grade inflation at Yale because the university does not share GPA data. However, the cum laude criterion for last year’s graduating class was 3.80, indicating that 30% of students had an A- or higher.
“If we pretend that this much of the work being submitted is that good, we are doing a disservice to our students,” said philosophy professor Shelly Kagan. “How can they know how to improve if we act as if everything is already at the maximum level we can reasonably expect?”
The mean course grade went from 3.42 in 199899 to 3.58 in 201112, according to a 2013 report by the Committee on Grading, which was created by former Yale College Dean Mary Miller GRD ’81 in reaction to rising grade-point average cutoffs for high honors.
Grade inflation, according to English professor Leslie Brisman, is likely due to the departure of an old regulation that stated that grades would not be recorded on individual papers unless students requested them. When Brisman first started teaching at the University in 1969, he was told to only give grades to students who came to him in person to review their work.
“Students’ capacity to digest the comments we labor so hard to get just right is hampered by grades,” Brisman said. “They also contribute to grade inflation by pressuring teachers to enhance grades from one essay to the next.”
The Committee on Grading recommended changes to Yale’s grading system in 2013 to prevent “compression,” or when a significant number of students receive the same grade, whether it is high or poor.
The committee’s main recommendation was to convert from an A-through-F system to a numerical one, with pupils receiving point scores ranging from 0 to 100. However, at a controversial faculty meeting, the committee abandoned that proposal after students protested outside, claiming that the new approach would generate too much stress.
Is Brown suffering from grade inflation?
Brown University is a private university in Providence, Rhode Students who do not care about letter grades can enroll in a Satisfactory/No Credit course. Brown may have the best GPA on paper, but their number one ranking is most likely due to grade inflation.
Who in Harvard has the highest GPA?
Ellie Hylton, the first African American to rank first in the Class of 2013, graduates from Harvard University with the best grade point average in the class. Hylton was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, the world’s oldest and most prestigious academic honor organization, among luminaries like W. E. B. Du Bois and Condoleeza Rice.
Why do universities lavish A’s on their students?
When people voted emphatically with their dollars, great products thrived while shoddy ones faded out, according to economist Milton Friedman. But, as most of higher education has demonstrated, shoddy products may perform just fine if they maintain a faade of quality while falling downward. Faced with tough competition and demanding customers, institutions have simply handed more A’s, fueling grade inflation and devaluing degrees.
At every level, from failing community colleges to Ivy League elites, grade inflation is in full swing. In other situations, campuswide averages have risen from a C to a B-plus in the last ten years.
Some departments award A’s to students in order to cover courses that might otherwise be canceled due to low enrollment. Individual instructors manipulate grades as a result of consumer-focused administrators pressuring them to do so. Professors at all levels embellish to avoid bad student evaluations, which now go into tenure and promotion decisions.
Part-time teachers, who have no job security and currently teach more than half of all college courses, are the most vulnerable. Two part-timers claim in the most recent issue of the journal Academe that students often corner adjuncts, threatening to complain if they do not change Cs into As. Universities would be “free to sell certificates altogether” if tenure was abolished, according to an Ivy League academic.