Overview Few Universities in the past two decades remain unaffected by the reality of grade inflation. Although a majority of schools are to some degree affected, private universities have encountered the most inflation of grades. Grade inflation is the practice of grading a majority of students with high grades and in today’s case a majority of grades in the A and high B range (Rojstaczer and Healy). Grade deflation, a policy adopted by few schools, is the practice of purposefully limiting the number of high grades and forcing a wider distribution of overall grades.
History Rapid grade inflation can be first attributed to the Vietnam War era of the 1960s to 1970s. Arvo Juolo a professor at Michigan State University recorded the first practice of grade inflation by recording the GPAs of colleges throughout the nation. After confirming the existence of grade inflation, he warned of “further grade inflation in the future”(Rojstaczer and Healy). Grade inflation slowed following the 1970s once again but the early 1980s saw the now steady rise of grades. The mean GPA for private and public schools in 1930 was a 2.3 but by 1983 the average in private schools rose to 2.9 and by 2015 the average reached 3.3 (Katsikas). The roots of such grade inflation are widely debated but what is known it that students are not getting “smarter” in the form of literacy. In 2003, the National Assessment of Adult Literacy concluded that literacy has not changed since 1992 (Policies Regarding Assessment and Grading). Grade inflation is undoubtedly happening and most extremely in America’s private Universities, but the variety of approaches to handling this phenomenon prove diverse.
Grade deflation The Successes The supporters of grade deflation policies argue that grades must be more broadly distributed in order to better evaluate students, and that the longer grade inflation is allowed to go on, the more meaningless grades will become. Grade deflation supporters also wish to close the gap between traditionally easier humanities and the math and sciences. Princeton implemented a grade deflation policy from 2004 to 2013 and during that time, the class of 2009 had a mean grade-point average of 3.39, compared with 3.46 for the class of 2003 and the percentage of A range grades awarded dropped below 40 percent in 2009 down from 50 percent when the policy was adopted in 2004 (Foderaro). Additionally, all but two humanity courses moved towards the distribution recommended by the policy (“Policies Regarding Assessment and Grading”).
The Downfalls The opposition to attempts to limit grade inflation argue that limitations in the number of As available causes unhealthy competition amongst students. According to a report from the Princeton Ad Hoc Committee, students reported instances of intentionally sabotaging one another and a loss of collaborative practices at schools for fear of not earning an A (“Policies Regarding Assessment and Grading”). Additionally when considering deflation policies at Yale, students protested arguing that such policies would cause Yale to lose the friendly and collaborative nature that was so appealing (McGuire). Opponents also argue that the low scores students may earn during college will negatively impact their future job search. Although a strict GPA cut-off is uncommon there are programs such as ROTC which weigh GPAs heavily, so an otherwise strong candidate who has a deflated GPA compared to other schools may not accepted. Opponents of grade deflation further argue that the attempts at implementing a deflation policy are futile due to universities not posing a united front on the issue. Professor of Philosophy from the College of New Jersey, Richard Kamber argued that the solution is for other schools to follow Princeton’s lead however Princeton up until 2013 was the only school to have implemented an official grade deflation policy. Because of that fact many worry that the fellow Ivy Leagues which compete with Princeton had an advantage both in attracting students for admissions and the students which graduate with higher GPAs from other schools would have an advantage in their job search. Lastly, in 2013 Princeton abandoned its grade deflation policy in 2013 (Bernhard). The vote to end the policy is argued to be evidence of the flaws in the idea.