RojsTACzER | gRAdE InFlATIon gonE WIld 751 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
About six years ago, I was sitting in the student union of a small lib-
eral arts college when I saw a graph on the cover of the student
newspaper that showed the history of grades given at that institution in
the past 30 years.
Grades were up. Way up.
I’m a scientist by training and I love numbers. So when I looked
at that graph, I wondered, “How many colleges and universities have
data like this that I can find?” The answer is that a lot of schools have
data like this hidden somewhere. Back then, I found more than 80 col-
leges and universities with data on grades, mostly by poking around the
Web. Then I cre ated a website (gradeinflation.com) so that others could
find this data. I learned that grades started to shoot up nationwide in
the 1960s, leveled off in the 1970s, and then started rising again in the
1980s. Private schools had much higher grades than public schools, but
virtually everyone was experiencing grade inflation.
What about today?
Grades continue to go up regardless of the quality of education.
At a time when many are raising questions about the quality of U.S.
higher edu cation, the average GPA at public schools is 3.0, with many
flagship state schools having average GPAs higher than 3.2. At a private
college, the average is now 3.3. At some schools, it tops 3.5 and even 3.6.
“A” is average at those schools! At elite Brown University, two-thirds of
all letter grades given are now A’s.
These changes in grading have had a profound influence on college
life and learning. When students walk into a classroom knowing that
they can go through the motions and get a B+ or better, that’s what they
tend to do, give minimal effort. Our college classrooms are filled with
students who do not prepare for class. Many study less than 10 hours a
week — that’s less than half the hours they spent studying 40 years ago.
Paradoxically, students are spending more and more money for an edu-
cation that seems to deliver less and less content.
With so few hours filled with learning, boredom sets in and students
have to find something to pass the time. Instead of learning, they drink.
A recent survey of more than 30,000 first-year students across the coun-
try showed that nearly half were spending more hours drinking than
they were studying. If we continue along this path, we’ll end up with a
generation of poorly educated college graduates who have used their
four years principally to develop an addiction to alcohol.
There are many who say that grade inflation is a complicated issue
with no easy fix. But there are solutions. At about the same time that I
started to collect data on rising grades, Princeton University began to
actually do something about its grade-inflation problem. Its guidelines
have the effect of now limiting A’s on average to 35 percent of students
in a class. Those guidelines have worked. Grades are going back down03_GRE_5344_Ch3_055_079.indd 75 11/19/14 11:06 AM