Grade trend not apparent at University

Everyone wants to get good grades in college -- and that could be getting easier each year.

A report recently published in U.S. News and World Report's annual college guide showed grade point averages increasing at many universities and colleges in the past decade.

Recently, this grade inflation has become a widely debated topic at universities across the country. In a report presented to the University Faculty Senate last semester, there were some indications of grade inflation at Penn State as well.

But before students start reveling in the good news, a question must be asked -- how many students at this University are actually reaping the benefits of grade inflation?

The answer is not many, said James Rambeau, associate dean for undergraduate education.

"It's just an ongoing conversation," Rambeau said. "It's an unresolved and probably unresolvable issue. But it's something for University faculty to worry about."

Grade point averages have increased slightly at the University in the past 20 years, said John Moore, associate professor of English and chair of the Faculty Senate's committee on undergraduate education.

"There is no question that the number of C's and D's have begun to shrink and the number of A's and B's are beginning to expand," Moore said. "However, if there really is grade inflation, it is happening somewhere else."

It can be difficult to determine whether grade inflation is actually taking place, Rambeau said. While GPAs are slightly higher than previous years, he said, the GPAs of incoming students are higher as well. This means students may be getting better grades, he said, but they were expected to do so from the start.

The issue of grade inflation causes concern when the Faculty Senate hears the annual report on grades and grading, Rambeau said.

"It comes up every single year," he said. "Everyone thinks that it's a terrible thing. But is there in fact grade inflation? From what I've seen, it's not really an issue."

In the report given to the senate in December, Moore presented figures from the Office of the University Registrar. Some numbers in the report appeared to support the idea of grade inflation. Of particular note was a chart which compared the distribution of GPAs during the past five years.

It indicated a trend of increased GPAs. The percentage of students with a 4.00 cumulative GPA in Spring 1996 was 3.8 percent, compared to only 2.9 percent in Spring 1991. The percentage of students earning between a 3.00 and a 3.99 GPA also increased to 47.3 percent, compared to 43.8 percent five years earlier.

Another part of that report showed the change in the number of students that received a particular letter grade during the past 20 years. That report did not seem to support the theory of grade inflation, however. The numbers on that report are difficult to decipher, because the grading system has changed a number of times in the past 20 years, with the addition of the 10-week late drop in 1984, plus/minus grading in 1988 and the 12-week late drop in 1990.

While many administrators say grade inflation is a non-issue, it has continued to be a popular topic of discussion on Internet discussion groups and in student newspapers across the nation. Opinions vary widely, but most agree on one thing -- grade inflation appears to be occurring. However, no one seems to know exactly what the ramifications of these higher grades are.

At Yale University, a study showed that grade inflation has virtually eliminated grades below C. More than 80 percent of grades given at Yale today are A's and B's.

Concerns about grade inflation have caused administrators at Duke University to propose a new grading system which would eventually eliminate GPAs completely. At Stanford University, faculty have proposed to revise a policy that would prevent students from dropping courses they are failing before the final exam. At the University of Texas, administrators have proposed to investigate grading procedures after a report showed a .05 increase in the average cumulative GPA.