>A trend of grades continuing to rise at universities across the United States has universities officials nationwide screaming inflation, while others have attributed this to the new flock of “A” students flowing out of improving secondary preparation for students entering universities.
The latest study, conducted by the University of Wisconsin Office of Budget, Planning & Analysis, showed grades at UW “gradually and relatively steadily” increasing from 1990 to 1998 with the average grade-point average rising approximately one-fifth of a point. The study concentrated on the correlation between ACT scores and grade-point average. Although this increase can be referred to as grade inflation, the rise is not significant enough to pose a real problem for UW, according to UW provost Peter Spear.
Spear attributed much of this increase to better preparation; yet, he noted other key factors such as faculty grading methods and the ease with which students are allowed to drop classes.
Few questions have been raised at UW in recent years regarding the issue, but many students still express personal frustration when it comes to the discretion professors have in doling out grades.
Conclusions drawn from the same study found the School of Education, along with the School of Nursing, awarding the highest grades to students while others within the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences generally received the lowest marks.
Charles Read, UW dean of the School of Education, drew focus to the difference in individual grading methods within this school in particular.
According to Read, professors either use grades to spread students out via the bell curve or set certain standards and in turn give an “A” to students who meet those standards. He also drew emphasis to the highly selective programs within the School of Education and the types of students that apply.
“The juniors and seniors in the school have been preparing for it. They are very engaged and get excited about it,” Read said.
In contrast, UW dean of CALS Elton D. Aberle said he did not notice any change in grades over recent years.
“I didn’t notice grade inflation or deflation,” Aberle said.
Within the report, it was also noted that seniors generally received higher grades than freshmen, a phenomenon Spear attributed to the fact that seniors take courses in their major, may be more motivated than younger students, and have grown comfortable with their college surroundings.
While UW may not be experiencing extreme grade inflation, other universities adopted new policies during 2002 to balance out the problem.
Washington University School of Law in St. Louis recently raised the marks of law students by increasing the mandatory mean to a higher “B” average than before, an action consistent with actions taken by other law schools according to Dan Keating, Washington University’s associate dean for academic affairs.
“We were disadvantaging our students,” Keating said. “Students felt like when they were going into the job market against students from other universities with “B+” averages; they were disadvantaged. Now they are equally situated.”
Keating expressed his personal difficulty with referring to the issue as inflation and instead referred to the university’s new policy as “a delayed response to what other universities were already doing. However, technically speaking, it is inflation.”
Harvard University and Columbia University are two other schools with new grading policies aimed to counteract the trend of grade inflation by limiting the number of students receiving high grades.
