The grade bubble

Sometimes college seems a bit too much like Lake Wobegon, the fictional town created by Garrison Keillor, where “all the children are above average.”

Stuart Rojstaczer, a professor at Duke, has been culling information about college grades from official databases and posting his findings on his Web site, gradeinflation.com, since 2002.

The data is impressive: grade inflation is widespread, spanning private and public schools from coast to coast. Overall, he estimates an increase of roughly 0.1 GPA point per decade.

Interestingly, he points out that Purdue is among the few colleges immune to grade inflation. The average GPA of a Boilermaker has only increased 0.01 in 30 years.

On the other hand, IU’s average GPAs from 1995 to 2008 increased by 0.21, an annual growth rate 45 times that of our rivals to the north.

Grade inflation eliminates any room for excellence in the grading scale. Even an A+ is not scarce enough to be worth a second glance.

For contrast, consider the French grading system, which uses a score out of 20. They have a saying: “20 is for the good Lord, 19 is for the professor, and 18 is for the best student.” A grade as low as 14 is equivalent to an A here.

College today is a consumer item. Students (or the parents putting pres- sure on them) are paying big bucks, and they expect returns in the form of good grades.

We also incentivize easy grading by providing students easy access to grade distribution data on specific classes. A professor whose numbers show they are a tough grader could see a drop in enrollment the next year.

I respect professors who have the spine to resist this economic pressure and stand up for the purpose of grades – to honestly evaluate students.

However, I do not agree with crusading instructors who see themselves as the last defenders of the old order by intentionally lowering grades.

For instance, deciding to award a specific number of A’s at the beginning of the semester is not a good practice, because it overcompensates for inflationary dishonesty with an equally dishonest deflation.

Some have attacked grade inflation critics for missing the point.

Alfie Kohn, for instance, points out that “the real threat to excellence isn’t grade inflation at all; it’s grades.” He argues that, as an extrinsic factor, grades don’t help motivate students to learn.

However, the worth of grades themselves is a separate issue. Either we should restore grades to their original purpose or abolish them if we decide that purpose is no longer important.

Jason Ellenburg, a mathematician and Slate online magazine columnist, said that the oft-cited problem of grade inflation compressing the scale does not prevent differentiation between students across an entire collegiate career.

Ellenburg shows that even with a measure as coarse as just two grades, superior students still end up with higher GPAs than inferior ones.

But an individual class grade does not exist to be factored eventually into a GPA. It exists primarily to differentiate students within a class.

And when everyone has A’s, who can tell the difference?