A is for Average
Jessica Benson
Elizabeth Shelley
KCHU 120
November 13, 2013
A is for Average
The percentage of A grades awarded in colleges throughout the United States have skyrocketed over the past 50 years. Unfortunately, this trend is not seen as an indication of higher quality or harder-working students. In fact, many studies have found that students in higher education devote considerably less time to studying and completing schoolwork than in the past. Corollaries between grade inflation and changing grading policies can be readily identified as content reduction and motivational factors have become a basis for raising student’s grades. While many people may not posses a clear understanding of this subject or recognize the dangers of inflation it is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed not only by administration and faculty but also students as they transition into higher education in pursuit of a college education. The consumer-based mentality that has developed within higher education causes both internal and external incentives for faculty to grade more generously and has resulted in a skewed perception of national aptitude and has subsequently increased the difficulty for graduate schools and employees to distinguish between the average and the excellent. Although the opinions may be split on the central causes or resulting effects of inflation the definition is quite simply defined and readily accepted by American educators. As Richard Kamber, professor of Philosophy and Literature at Claremont Graduate School was quoted in James Kay’s book Grade Inflation: Academic Standards in Higher Education “’The symptoms of grade inflation are familiar: an upward shift in the grade point average of students over an extended period of time…without a corresponding increase in student achievement’”(89). An in depth study of this trend was recently done by Stuart Rojstaczer, a former Duke University professor, and Christopher Healy, associate professor of computer
Elizabeth Shelley
KCHU 120
November 13, 2013
A is for Average
The percentage of A grades awarded in colleges throughout the United States have skyrocketed over the past 50 years. Unfortunately, this trend is not seen as an indication of higher quality or harder-working students. In fact, many studies have found that students in higher education devote considerably less time to studying and completing schoolwork than in the past. Corollaries between grade inflation and changing grading policies can be readily identified as content reduction and motivational factors have become a basis for raising student’s grades. While many people may not posses a clear understanding of this subject or recognize the dangers of inflation it is clearly an issue that needs to be addressed not only by administration and faculty but also students as they transition into higher education in pursuit of a college education. The consumer-based mentality that has developed within higher education causes both internal and external incentives for faculty to grade more generously and has resulted in a skewed perception of national aptitude and has subsequently increased the difficulty for graduate schools and employees to distinguish between the average and the excellent. Although the opinions may be split on the central causes or resulting effects of inflation the definition is quite simply defined and readily accepted by American educators. As Richard Kamber, professor of Philosophy and Literature at Claremont Graduate School was quoted in James Kay’s book Grade Inflation: Academic Standards in Higher Education “’The symptoms of grade inflation are familiar: an upward shift in the grade point average of students over an extended period of time…without a corresponding increase in student achievement’”(89). An in depth study of this trend was recently done by Stuart Rojstaczer, a former Duke University professor, and Christopher Healy, associate professor of computer