Monday, April 19, 1999
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 9
A is for average:
Students are receiving higher grades today than they have in the past 20 rs. Are they performing better, or are academic standards slipping?
Continued from page 1A
Increase in the Average GPA by School
"We're at some critical turning points here," said Charles Snare of Middle Georgia College, who has written several articles criticizing grade inflation and its underlying causes. "The bottom line in our society is that colleges are expected to provide students with basic skills and demand those skills be learned. From what I've studied, businesses don't believe we're doing that."
Society: Offer of Institutional Research and Planning
Snare said grade inflation devalued a student's degree, giving businesses and graduate schools little to go on when appraising a college graduate's ability.
"All the studies I have seen show grades are at the bottom in hiring decisions," Snare said. "Employers have little faith in the grades given. They say, 'Everyone gets A's now.' There's no longer an A, B, C distinction."
But the consensus at the University seems to be that rising grades are not a cause for alarm. Many administrators and faculty point out that the quality of students is better now than in the 1970s because of higher admissions standards for the University and specific schools.
"We're bringing in better students," said Provisod Shulenburger, the University's chief academic officer. "If grades consistently
mean the same thing,
then higher grade
would be expected."
Shulenburger said he wouldn't rule out the possibility that some faculty might have more lenient grading standards, but he said methods of teaching and evaluation had changed over time.
"We've moved from evaluating factual
knowledge to assessing the theoretical understanding," which leads to better performance from students, he said.
Several KU faculty members agreed with Shulenburger
Fred Rodriguez, director of the Center for Teaching Excellence and an associate professor in the School of Education, said he wouldn't be worried if 90 percent of his students got A's if they demonstrated understanding of the course content.
"If a physician had the cure for cancer or AIDS, that person would win a Nobel Prize." Rodriguez said. "If a teacher can guarantee high ability in learning content, we accuse them of soft standards and inflating grades. We hear that a lot."
either side.
The traditional theory of distribution is that grades should fall along a normal "bell" curve. The highest number of grades should be in the average, or C, range, and the D', F', B's, B' and A's should taper off on
Rodriguez said he questioned that approach.
"If students can demonstrate their knowledge as a result of instruction, are we going to penalize them and make some of them get F$?" he asked.
Cynthia Annett, assistant professor of biology, also teaches courses in statistics. She said people studying grade inflation needed to be careful
about making assumptions when looking at the raw data
Rachel Kesselman/KANSAN
"I think in many cases, bias in grading is assumed," Annett said.
Annett said misinformation was being used in the grade- inflation de bate against outstanding faculty whose students happened to get good grades.
"We have a bunch of
smart students who work very hard," she said. "It's too easy to fall into bashing students, bashing teachers. Everyone's a bozo."
Even if students are brighter and teachers are better, several elite universities are trying to add context to grades and draw distinctions among their students, many of whom get A's.
Dartmouth University publishes the median grade in a class next to the grade received on a student's transcript. Stanford University took a harder line and began falling students after a 20-year period in which not one had been given at the university.
Duke University tried to completely eliminate traditional grades and evaluate students using an "achievement index" that took into account difficulty of the class and comparisons with students elsewhere. That proposal failed to pass a faculty committee.
these attempts to deal with grade inflation had been unsuccessful because inflation was a non-issue.
"The academy doesn't define this as a problem," he said.
KU Provost Shulenburger said
Although many who work behind ivy-covered walls may not think grade inflation is an issue, there are voices of concern on campus and elsewhere.
Mary Sykes of Rose Hill, Kan., went back to school for a bachelor's degree in accounting at Wichita State University in the early 1990s after earning an English degree more than 20 years previously from Texas Tech. She said the difference in the way classes were taught and grades awarded surprised her.
"I found that getting an A took work, but a B covered a broad range," Sykes said. "Professors don't want to give a C, but the student hasn't worked hard enough for an A, so they give a B. It's not too hard to get a B."
Tracy Florenti, Lawrence graduate student, has been a graduate teaching assistant in KU's English Department for six years. Even in that time, she said, she has noticed a change in the way students perceive grades.
"People don't think of grades as they're traditionally meant to be," Florean said. "It depends on the student, but often a C is thought of an F now. I've noticed that more people are frustrated by C's and B-minuses than they used to be."
Although Shulenburger contends students are arriving better-prepared for college than they used to be, Floreani said she thought many students were ill-equipped. She said high schools were not teaching students how to write analytically and that many of them had to start over in their University classes.
"I feel for those students," she said.
Some employers say college graduates with high GPAs aren't necessarily prepared to enter the workforce.
"The GPA is not by itself a factor," said Jim Mason, selection leader for Koch Industries of Wichita. "I don't feel like that's an indicator of future performance by itself."
Koch Industries of Wichita is the nation's second-largest private employer and a top employer of KU graduates.
"We look at the whole picture of that particular person," he said.
activity and passion to contribute when making hiring decisions.
Mason said he evaluated work ethic, problem-solving skills, creat
At KU, the schools whose grades have jumped the most since 1978 are Education, from an average GPA of 2.96 to 3.43, or 16 percent; Business, 2.78 to 3.17, or 14 percent; and Pharmacy, 2.91 to 3.29, or 13 percent.
A study by the National Center for Education Statistics has reported that grade inflation is a problem in schools of education more than any other academic field, but Dean Karen Gallagher said that at KU, at least, it isn't a factor.
The School of Education has seen the most dramatic increase in average GPA, and its undergraduate students have the second-highest grades at the University.
Gallagher said part of the leap in average GPA could be attributed to a change in the way education students were counted. In 1978, the school accepted freshmen, but now students must be at least juniors.
She also said education students
were some of the brightest at the University.
Cynthia Annett
"What that says to me is that good people want to become teachers," she said.
The reason for higher grades in the School of Pharmacy is an increase in the talent in the applicant pool, Associate Dean Jeremy Matchett said.
assistant professor of biology
"We accept 100 students from as many as 300 applicants," Matchett said. "The competition is greater, therefore the abilities of students are greater."
Pluses and minuses are intended not to bring grades down, but to draw distinctions
Of the schools with the highest increases, only Business has shown any concern. Beginning next fall, it will adopt plus-minus grading, which all schools have the option to use, Associate Dean Bruce Bubiltz said.
"Now I can put a third in B-minus, a third in B and a third in B-plus," Bublitz said. With the A and A-minus, the School of Busi-
nes will now have five acceptable categories instead of just two.
between students who are almost all earning A's and B's. Bublit said the B range had been too broad, with a huge gap between people doing low-B work and those earning a high B.
Bublitz said the school couldn't go
back to making a C an average grade because to do so would put graduates at a competitive disadvantage with graduates elsewhere
"We will still grade comparable to other business schools but we'll make more distinctions based on performance," he said.
Grade researcher Snare maintains that there might be other reasons grades are rising. He attributes grade inflation on a national level to an increasing consumer mentality among students — they're paying for an education and they're not paying for C's.
He also points to studies that show professors who give higher grades get better evaluations. He said that correlation was troubling in light of how heavily student evaluations are weighed in tenure decisions.
Provost Shulenburger, chairman of the Promotion and Tenure Committee, denied that an instructor could "buy" good evaluations with high grades.
"That's a strategy that doesn't work," he said. "It's a deal you can't make."
So far, the University of Kansas is not discussing grade inflation. Administrators say grades are up only a modest amount and many faculty don't seem concerned.
in the meantime, KU junior Popp is facing the law-school application process and assessing his own GPA situation.
"If you are clearly a better student, someone who gets an inflated grade that's the same as yours eliminates your competitive edge," he said.
— Edited by Kelli Raybern and Liz Wristen
Above: Students can find creative ways not to study. Left: Some people believe teachers now are more liberal with giving high grades, which can lead to grade inflation. Photo illustration by Magnus Andersson/KANSAN
Top 10 Reasons to Shop Co-op
1. We're the closest grocery store to the Hill.
2. We have great coffees (like Moka Java) to get you jump-started in the morning.
3. Our deli has the best selection of homemade food around.
4. We offer remedies and support for mid-semester mental blow-outs.
5. Our fruits and veggies don't do drugs check out our organic produce.
6. You can load up on high power snacks like protein shakes and Power Bars, etc.
7. Ben & Jerry's—need we say more?
8. We sell cheeses from around the world.
9. Stock up on munchies like chips & salsas.
10. We have cookies, chocolates & more.
Community Mercantile·901 Mississippi 843-8544 Open 7:30 a.m.to 9:30 p.m. every day