Value of an A, thing of the past?

Getting A's doesn't faze sophomore Megan Gold. \n"You have those classes where you get an A and you're just like, 'yeah, I expected that,'" she said. \nLike Gold, many IU students are receiving higher grades with no extra effort. This phenomenon, known as grade inflation, is not a novel issue regarding undergraduate grading, and it's not occurring only among Hoosiers.\nIn fact, grade inflation is suggested to have begun more than 20 years ago during the Vietnam era as a way to keep young men in college and out of the battlefield. The idea was that superior grades would discourage draft boards from recruiting men in college, according to a Boston Globe article.\nEven Ivy League schools aren't immune to grade inflation. Princeton University faculty members approved a grade cap last April allowing no more than 35 percent of A's to be given out to undergraduates after it was reported that 55 percent of students were receiving A's, according to Princeton's Web site.\nMeanwhile, IU is fighting its own grade inflation perceptions, because the problem seems to prevail. \nA C is no longer the average. Last semester, only 5.6 percent of students taking classes in the College of Arts & Sciences received C's while 16.9 percent received A's. Just nine years ago, only 14 percent of COAS students received A's while 7.4 percent got C's for the 1995 fall semester, according to the grade distribution Web site.\nWhether students are truly earning higher marks or professors are being more lenient graders is a central question regarding the issue with a not-so-crystal clear answer. \nPsychology Lecturer Cynthia Hoffman said college-level teachers feel pressure to give higher grades because parents and students have consumerist attitudes and feel as though they deserve good grades because of increasingly steep tuition costs. \n"They think they've paid for A's and B's," she said.\nDoctoral student Janice McCabe, who has researched and written articles on grade inflation at IU, agrees that an entitlement mentality exists among students. \nBut teachers are feeling pressure in more ways than one. Grading plays a big role in determining the outcomes of teachers' evaluations, which could be another reason that some teachers are being loose with A's. \n"Teaching evaluations pressure teachers," said Associate Professor of Journalism Radhika Parameswaran. "They are in our files and how we are judged." \nUsually, Parameswaran said, teachers who grade hard can't expect good evaluations. That might not be true, though.\nFurthermore, McCabe said most of the research she has done through interviews with professors suggests that getting good evaluations doesn't necessarily mean high grades were given. \nIn fact, McCabe suggested grade inflation might not actually exist at IU. She said there are many reasons why grades might have risen through the years. Fewer required courses for students, a student body with more females and Asian students who typically get higher grades and making withdrawals an option are among possible reasons for more A's, McCabe said.\nDoctoral student and visiting lecturer Joey Gray considers the issue from a different angle as well, suggesting higher grades might have less to do with anything the students are doing. Gray, like McCabe, conducted a study on the topic and found that some associate instructors at IU feel they lack training in grading procedures and in formulating tests. \n"(Associate instructors) need to learn how to grade," she said.\nYoung teachers can also benefit from mentorship, she said. She recalled a time at East Carolina University, her alma mater, when she first began teaching and had no mentors. Finally, a colleague taught her how to use a grading rubric. \n"The way I grade completely changed," she said.\nA misconception of the grading system exists when instructors have no standard way of grading and students demand higher grades. \nDavid Gallahue, dean of the School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation, is concerned with the decreasing value of the A as well. \n"Suddenly everyone is above average," he said. "It places questions on our credibility as an institution when everyone is at that level." \nParameswaran recently made an addition to her syllabus that requires her students to wait at least 48 hours before discussing their grades with her. She also puts a key to her exams on reserve at the library to which students have access. \nMcCabe said the University has also made some changes to combat the perception of grade inflation. \nNow, grade indexes are present on students' progress reports to give students an idea of the context surrounding their grades. Also, faculty members received a memo in February which encouraged conversation regarding issues surrounding the wide dispersion of A's, she said.\nGallahue said HPER will hold workshops for its faculty members on grading next spring and will require graduate instructors to attend a session on grade distribution so they can better understand grading procedures.\n-- Contact Staff Writer Michelle Manchir at mmanchir@indiana.edu.