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Grade inflation—and deflation—in higher ed

This morning’s Inside Higher Ed (Grade Inflation Seen Rising) reports that Stuart Rojstaczer, a retired Duke University professor who is responsible for GradeInflation.com, has released another analysis that suggests that grade inflation continues in higher ed.

According to Rojstaczer, the average GPA at private colleges is now up to 3.3 (a B+). At public colleges and universities, it is now 3.01 (a B). Big public universities in the South and some liberal arts colleges have experienced the most inflation in recent years.

Says IHE,

Rojstaczer's findings will probably resonate with professors, many of whom regularly bemoan grade inflation and say that students are conditioned to expect good grades just for showing up, and that professors who refuse to go along get punished with harsh course evaluations. Many professors who are off the tenure track or who are pre-tenure report great fear of being punished by students (and then not rehired) if they gain a reputation for tough grading, and studies have found correlations between being an easy grader and earning good ratings at RateMyProfessors.com. [My emphasis.]

Rogstaczer notes that, at Brown University last year, most undergrade grades were A’s.

The issue matters, Rojstaczer said, because "the alternative is a student body that frequently misses class, never prepares in advance, studies about 11 hours a week if they are 'full time' students, and drinks itself into a constant stupor out of boredom. That's not an acceptable alternative anywhere." [My emphasis.]

Some experts (Rojstaczer is not an expert, though he has gathered an impressive amount of data) think that Rojstaczer is making too much of this problem. Clifford Adelman (of the Institute for Higher Education Policy) for one remarks, “‘If grade inflation is so rampant, how come at least a third of kids who start in four-year colleges don't graduate?’"

According to Rojstaczer, community colleges seem to be bucking the trend:

As to community colleges, [Kay McClenney, director of the Community College Survey of Student Engagement] said that her center's focus groups and surveys have found that students and professors at two-year institutions are on the same page on standards: both groups worry about and would oppose anything that suggests that "expectations of students may not be high enough." And she said that close student-faculty interaction at community colleges encourages frank evaluations. "Teaching and learning is what community college faculty do."

Guess so. Still, I think we need to buck a bit harder.

Postcard from the Recession

The little guy is off to school at 7:55 AM and had just enough time to pose with his latest first grade civics project - a "patriotic" poster. He had to choose three symbols (you can see them here) and then compose a paragraph that identified and explained each one. He is particularly proud of his Statue of Liberty, which, he reminded his parents was a gift from the French.

Tonight the entire family will attend the OUSD board meeting where they assume the board will vote to close his elementary school.

Sigh.

The ripple affect in this canyon community will be sad and scary.

The Los Angeles Times has been running a series of op-ed essays under the banner "Postcards from the Recession." Sunday, Susan Straight wrote from Riverside, suggesting that the people out there are our canaries in a coal mine. Yesterday Gustavo Arellano reported from Anaheim. Today Lisa See explores the effects on the Westside (L.A. that is). Rebel Girl has been using the essays in the classroom where, she notes, the attention of the students is unusually rapt.