A recent study on grade inflation within colleges and universities across the nation has caused some University of Wisconsin students and faculty to speculate if the current grading system is a valid success indicator.
The study, conducted by Stuart Rojstaczer, a retired Duke University professor, showed the average GPA for public schools from 1991 to 2007 increased from 2.85 to 3.01. The average UW GPA also increased by more than 0.6 in the past 45 years.
UW philosophy professor Lester Hunt said dramatic differences in the average grades students receive from one department to another should also cause concern.
“Grading from school or college in one department to another varies spectacularly,” Hunt said. “In some departments, you have a compression of all A’s and a few AB’s, and in other departments it’s really spread. … Grades don’t mean anything anymore from this event to another. They are languages. If you go from math to education, you’ve gone to a different country and [grades] don’t mean anything at all.”
A study conducted by Hunt in 1998 revealed about 95 percent of students in UW’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction received A’s as their average grade. Research also showed the remaining 15 percent of students received an average of AB’s, B’s and BC’s, while no students received an average of C’s, D’s or F’s.
In contrast, grade distribution among students within the Department of Mathematics remained relatively consistent across the grading spectrum, with almost equal amounts of students receiving A, B and C averages. Fifteen percent of students also received an average of D’s and F’s.
Though UW’s research is more than 10 years old, Rojstaczer’s study reveals the problem of grade inflation continues to grow as grades continue to improve across the board.
Since grades are intended to give information to perspective employers, Hunt added the trend toward higher grades could have a negative impact in the job market, especially among high-risk jobs such as engineering or nursing.
“In music performance, the average grade is an A [but] you don’t really need grading,” Hunt said. “If I’m looking for a clarinet player, in about a minute I can tell how good you are which is better than I can see by looking at your transcript. Unfortunately, the average grade for nursing is an A and a bad nurse can kill you.”
UW sophomore and math major Sarah Anderson voiced concern about the information.
“Not only does it scare me to find out that there aren’t good qualifying measures to decide who is going to be my nurse when I’m older, but as a math major, I’m kind of annoyed,” Anderson said.
Anderson said her annoyance stems from the fact some UW institutions, including the business certificate program, accepts students solely based on GPA.
“I was hoping to get a business certificate, but since they only accept the highest whatever number of kids with the highest GPA, I could likely be competing with people who have a much greater chance of getting that high GPA and getting in. That just can’t be fair,” Anderson said.
