According to data compiled by the Connecticut College Department of Institutional Research, 50% of grades awarded at Conn are As. However, this doesn’t mean that grade inflation exists.
That last sentence looks a little ridiculous. How is it possible to say that grade inflation isn’t an issue when a little over half of the over-all grade distribution is accounted for by work that is graded as being exemplary or above and beyond? John Nugent, the Director of Institutional Research, has been looking at this issue over the course of a few years. After coming across some files dating back to 1919, he was able to construct a graph showing the shift in grading trends through the history of the college. In 1919, 40 to 50% of grades were at a B or a C; As and Ds occurred at a 10% rate respectively. These numbers reflect what was once a normal grade distribution. However, during the 1960s and beyond there was a massive shift. Bs became Cs, and Cs became Ds, and Ds and Fs were nearly obsolete. At this point, receiving anything below a B is reason to be very very upset with yourself.
So is this clean-cut evidence of a grade inflation problem that has become rampant over the past 20 years or so? The easy answer would be yes. But, in the past week, it became increasingly obvious that there are no clear answers when discussing grade inflation. What these numbers do show is grade increase: grades have indeed gotten higher over time. Though there are some factors that definitely point to the possibility of grade inflation, especially when inspecting grade average differences between specific departments, I believe that there are some cultural changes and climates on this campus that have come to contribute to the change
Consider this: in the 1960s, education became much more touchy-feely. Psychologists suggested that maybe it would be important to nurture a student’s self-worth instead of simply cramming information into their skulls. They finally realized that maybe children are people. Some of the changes may be due in part to Conn becoming co-ed during the Vietnam War. Perhaps not coincidentally, that is when we see the frequency of As shoot up and the use of other grades decrease. Clearly this phenomenon doesn’t exist in the Conn vacuum: other liberal arts schools, such as Vassar, have seen similar trends. With this in mind, we can view the issue as something that is part of a greater ideological shift that registered across the entire country. The changes do not exist in isolation from greater educational and social issues.
I thought that I was in firm opposition of grade inflation. Then, after an email conversation with Professor Simon Feldman, I realized that defining grade inflation is no easy task: “Given that grades (outside of some narrow contexts) are not (and in my view should not be, especially in the humanities) mere objective quantitative measures of student work-product it’s really not clear how we could even establish that inflation was occurring.” While the blue line on the graph representing the distribution of high grades points strongly upwards, does it indicate something as negative as grade inflation i.e., people being given high grades for mediocre work?
I suppose the first question we can ask is: what is the function of giving grades? Why do we still do it? Other schools are beginning to do away with traditional grading systems in favor of a Pass/No Pass structure. What merit does the old system hold?
During an interview with John Nugent, he mentioned a conversation held between several members of the faculty regarding how they go about grading their students. He posed the question: “Should grades be the carrot or the stick?” I took this to mean, how should grades be used as a motivating factor? In one case, if the normal grade distribution were in play, receiving lower grades would inspire the student to work harder to achieve higher grades. On the other hand, if higher grades are rewarded, would the reduced stress allow students to have more liberty to be creative without being preoccupied with how well they would do on a paper or project? On the other side of the coin, if students know they can receive high grades for work they acknowledge as not being their best work, will they be galvanized to produce high quality coursework?
Some may say that the grading system should be regulated so there are basic standards held across all departments and faculty.
If everyone is held accountable for producing the same caliber of work, that would maybe lessen the sensation of what we might call grade inflation across the campus, right? But if we were to do that, the main complaint would be that is an infringement of academic and intellectual freedom of both faculty and students.
The main difference between grading techniques is whether the professor chooses to grade the class in relative to one another (that’s where curves in science courses come from), or individual students in comparison to their previous work. In some cases, it is more useful for students to be in competition with themselves rather than with their classmates. For the most part, in the humanities, I feel as though that’s the only way to distribute grades. However, there is the question as to whether it is ethical to send a student off with a glowing transcript because they improved and they tried, if they are being held to the same standard as a student who perhaps, overall, was able to express his/her ideas better
Professors have an interesting position within the grading system as well, especially depending on their status within the school. A professor that has not yet received tenure may be more reluctant to hand out lower grades because it could have an effect on their end of semester professor feedback reports from students. If a professor gets negative reviews, the chance of achieving tenure is drastically reduced, which is frustrating considering the current adjunctification of academia. Often it is out of the professor’s own interests to grade in a certain way, whether it is conscious or not.
A professor in the English Department brought up an interesting point regarding the practice grade regulation as an economic issue. If students at Conn went back to being on the normal distribution curve, it would put us out of competition with all the other schools that didn’t. As bad as the job market is now, imagine graduating with seemingly lower grades compared to the rest of the class of 20-whatever across the country.
If students cannot be competitive in the job market, or survive in the world, how functional is the school they graduated from? This professor went on to say that the only way to erase whatever grade inflation may possibly exist would be to invent a grade that is higher than an A and completely unattainable. Regardless as to whether grades are high due to inflation or other factors, it is interesting to note that no one school can change the grading hierarchy without immense consequences for itself and its students.
Another issue to be addressed is the difference between disciplines. In the data Nugent put together, he divided departments into Performance Art, Humanities, Social Sciences, Hard Sciences and Mixed to reflect students double majoring in two diverse subjects. It is clear that the students that major in Biology or Chemistry have the lowest GPAs, and the Performance Arts students tend to have the highest. This is absolutely no reflection on the legitimacy of each department, and not even a clear indicator of the existence of grade inflation. It merely confirms the different natures of different courses of study. As an English major talking to friends that are Behavioral Neuroscience majors, I am always stricken by the different attitudes they have toward their coursework. One major told me that they’re not sure why they study so much for tests when, regardless of the time they spend, they feel as though they are still just as likely to get a C.
This article has spent a large majority of the time presenting only some of the many factors that must be taken into account while defining and considering the existence of grade inflation. According to some definitions it is rampant, according to others it may not be such a problem. As of yet, I have not presented a solid opinion as to whether a) grade inflation exists, or b) if it is a bad thing for the campus and collegiate education as a whole.
I guess my final response is: does it really matter? My honest opinion is that, regardless of all of these messy institutional and historical factors that play into grade inflation or increase and the shift that ended with students having a 50% chance of being rewarded with an A versus a B or a C, is that students themselves are accountable for their learning. That is, after all, what a liberal arts education attempts to ingrain in their students: accountability for their thoughts, opinions, beliefs, position in society, and how they come to learn about all of those things.
While this might seem like a separate issue, it really isn’t. If students are truly there to learn, why should it feel like a B is a failing grade? Why should it feel like getting an A is any better? If students feel a sense of ownership over what they put on paper to eventually be handed in for a grade, maybe then they’ll feel pride for their work as a separate entity from the grade they receive.
An issue that stuck from President Katherine Bergeron’s Q&A in Coffee Grounds last week was that, according to her, Connecticut College is too modest. After a discussion with a few friends, we came to the conclusion that that’s just a nice way to say that we can be incredibly self-deprecating. Maybe this grade increase is a reflection of the school doing something right in the face of a structurally flawed education system. While many of the other liberal arts schools show similar trends in their grades over time, it is not completely across the board; some schools reflect much lower GPAs. This could be due to grade inflation that is uneven across the board, or it could be an indication that some schools have done truly amazing things with their students.
The development of technology has certainly changed the way we educate ourselves outside of the classroom. In turn, the huge amount of information that is available to anyone with an internet connection has added a new element of social consciousness to course work: we no longer have the excuse of only having one library to work with. We have a world of information and observation, and now we have accountability for it.
