'Making' the grade

Many students have had the experience: the room is silent except for scratching pencils and creaking desk chairs. Swirls of chalk animate the blackboard. Time is nearly up, and all but a few students remain, struggling over unfinished examinations.\nThe last student relinquishes his work to the waiting associate instructor, then joins the rest of the class in the hallway, heads hung low. But, to everyone's delight, the professor adjusts the grades to reflect the difficulty -- 80 percent becomes an 'A,' 70 percent a 'B' and so on.\nA, B, C, D and F. Students and faculty across the nation know the meaning of these five letters, but what are they really worth?\nUSA Today reported in February that eight out of every 10 Harvard students graduate with honors and nearly half receive A's in their courses. Colleges and universities around the nation from Stanford to Eastern Kentucky are struggling with the same phenomenon: grade inflation.\nThe average undergraduate grade point average (GPA) at Indiana University has risen from 2.76 to 3.01 since 1977-78, according to the Indiana University Office of the Registrar's 2001-2002 Enrollment Report. \nThe current half-percent yearly growth rate is not alarming. At that rate, the class of 2002 is likely to be old and gray before the average IU undergraduate GPA breaks 4.0. But, grades at IU continue to rise, and there is no one reason. \n"It's fair to say that the only thing we have that guides grading is a list of grades that we can give," said Ted Miller, associate dean of faculties. "Each of these grades is associated with a term that describes it: an 'A' is supposed to be excellent work, a 'B' is good work, but the fact of the matter is that there is no standard way to grade." \nA possible factor contributing to grade inflation is that students are required to have a minimum GPA of 2.0 to graduate. COAS requires students to have a minimum grade of C-minus in their major classes, with a minimum overall GPA of 2.0 in their major.\n"In the real good old days an 'F' was a failing grade and a 'D' was not," Miller said. "If you look at the degree programs today, what you'll find is that the faculty have redefined what a failing grade is." \nThe percentage of D's and F's at IU fell from eight percent in 1979-80 to six percent in 2000-2001. 44 percent of 2000-2001 grades were A's. Since 1991-92, more A's have been awarded than any other grades. From 1979 until then, the highest percentage of grades were B's.\n"English is often seen as an 'anything goes' subject stemming from a belief that there are no standards for grading," said Kathy Smith, associate chair of the department of English. "There is a perception that instructors in lower-level classes give away high grades. But composition writing courses take the work through a process of revision." \nSmith said what at first might be 'C' work can become 'A' work over the course of a semester.\n"We don't think in terms of right or wrong," Smith said. "We look for the extent to which the position is supported by logic and the text." \nAdhering to a set of criteria determined at the beginning of the semester and the ability to communicate clearly are also crucial.\nSmith describes 'C' work as competent -- the student has fulfilled the criteria. 'B' work is good work. An 'A' is exemplary -- a model to show the class. Anything below a 'C' needs serious attention.\nIn math and science, answers are usually correct or incorrect. Professors often give partial credit if the student demonstrates the correct logic but miscalculates. \n"You work out in advance how many points you're going to give for each part of the question and what a satisfactory answer is in each part of the question, then you develop a rubric," said Catherine Pilachowski, Kirkwood Dean of Astronomy. \nAstronomy majors are required to take 25 credit hours of upper-level physics and 15 credit hours of upper-level math.\nThe School of Health, Physical Education and Recreation generated 11,637 credit hours second semester 2000-2001. 26 percent were generated by students majoring in applied health science, kinesiology or recreation and park administration. \nThe other 74 percent (8,611) were from activities courses, such as basketball, swimming and archery, estimated Tony Mobley, dean of the HPER school.\n"Activities courses are based on attendance, improvement and on a skills test, and there are some written tests," Mobley said. "If a student enrolls in one of those courses, works hard and comes to class, they get a pretty good grade." \nThe School of Social Work is one of the smaller schools, awarding around 270 grades a semester. Their average GPA course grade is 3.26. They require a 2.5 average for entering students. \nKatharine Byers is coordinator for the Bloomington campus social work school. For her, a 'B' is a borderline failing grade, but she emphasizes that grades are not as important as helping students to develop the necessary skills for social work.\n"We invest in students," said Byers. "We want to do everything we can to help them succeed, and so, for instance, we'll look at drafts of papers before they're due and make suggestions."\nTeaching Evaluations\nThe easiest way to assess a professor's teaching ability is through student evaluation. Evaluations are used to determine promotions, tenure and raises.\n"There is a recognition that if a faculty member gives everybody in the class an A that their student evaluation may end up better," said Associate Dean of Faculties Miller. \n"[But] a faculty who is giving everybody an 'A,' and they have fantastic teaching evaluations would raise a question."\nThe New York Times recently reported, "[Duke University] freshman expecting an A-minus were 20 to 30 percent more likely to provide a favorable review than those expecting a B, who were 20 to 30 percent more likely than those expecting a C-plus." \nOn average, students who did better than they expected raised their evaluations, and those who received a lower grade, lowered their evaluations. \n"Now I Know My ABC's: Demythologizing Grade Inflation" was written by Jeremy Freese, Julie E. Artis and Brian Powell, and published in The Social Worlds of Higher Education: Handbook for Teaching in a New Century. \nThey found that professors in their department who had won teaching awards gave slightly lower grades than other professors. Among graduate students, they found that grading leniency had no overall effect on student evaluations. \nThey also discovered that evaluations of instructors corresponded poorly with expected grades, but strongly with assessment of the instructor's clarity, enthusiasm, fairness and impartiality.\nChristopher Martin, an IU Law student who earned a biology undergraduate degree at IU, did not see a relationship between easy classes and positive evaluations. \n"If there was a class where grades were easy, then students just didn't care about the class," Martin said. "They weren't going to give favorable reviews to a professor if there was no benefit to the class. They just wouldn't care."\nEvaluations are one of the few ways for professors to receive feedback from students. Unfortunately, they usually come at the end of the semester when students are pressured by final exams and term papers.\n"There's no question that we should use these," Byers said. "[But] I mistrust teaching evaluations a great deal because I think they become in some ways an assessment on how well you liked someone as opposed to how good a teacher that person is."\nChanging Atmosphere\nWilliam Cohen, chair of the department of history, remembers a student who got into Harvard Law School with a 3.2 GPA. That was 1962. Today, undergraduates accepted to Harvard Law have a minimum of a 3.7 GPA. [An estimate based on the GPA's of undergraduates accepted to Yale and Stanford law schools reported by U.S. News and World Report.]\n"If the grades here are significantly lower than they are at Harvard, you don't want to put your students at a disadvantage," said astronomy Professor Stuart Mufson. "To some degree, grade inflation is inevitable, if it is a trend throughout the entire country."\nSophomore Heidi Kuhlenschmidt is a psychology major with a 3.94 GPA.\n"I think that we get so wrapped up in the grades that we basically work for the grade," Kuhlenschmidt said. "I could know absolutely nothing about math, but I'm so focused on getting an 'A' in [calculus] that I'll get an 'A.'"\nGetting good grades is essential for Kuhlenschmidt because she plans to attend medical school.\n"If the high GPA and high test scores aren't there, they won't even consider you," Kuhlenschmidt said.\nSenior Duncan Baumgart is a classical guitar major with an outside field in mathematics. He equates the difficulty of upper-level calculus with music theory, only he understands music theory better. Grade inflation is not something he has experienced. \n"Grades don't really matter unless you go to graduate school," Baumgart said. "But if you learn a whole lot and you get a 'C' or a 'D,' it's better than learning nothing and getting an 'A.'"\nBaumgart believes that students should be graded not only on what they produce, but also on work ethic and the amount of work they put into the course. \nSophomore Neosha Burns has never experienced grade inflation, but she has struggled with the gap between what she knows and the grade she gets. \n"I've learned that college is basically made of tests," Burns said. "It's not a lot of homework along the way." \nBurns doesn't think grades are an accurate measure of learning. Simple mistakes on tests kept her from earning higher grades even though she felt she knew the material well.\nAcross from the Neil Marshall Center, nestled in a grove of pines is the Student Academic Center (SAC). Next to the counter is a display containing flyers for classes such as X101, Learning Strategies for Mathematics and H105/H106, Learning Strategies for History. \n"The majority of the students who take our classes view themselves as possibly running some risk of not doing well," said Sharon Chertkoff, director of SAC Outreach Programs and Services.\nMany of the programs at SAC help students become more effective and efficient as they make the transition form high school into college. Chertkoff said colleges and universities are becoming more and more aware of the importance of trying to help students.\nRetaining a student is much less expensive than recruiting one, and money has become more important. Many see this as a new trend in higher education. What at one time had been a privilege has now become a decision for consumers, said Donald Hossler, vice-chancellor of enrollment services.\n"It's not a question of if I'm going to college," Hossler said. "It's only a question of where." \nMany think higher education has become a business, and students are the clients. Some students see grades as something to obtain and think little about learning.\n"More young people today think nothing of coming in and complaining, 'I don't deserve this grade. You gave me this grade,'" Chertkoff said. "I emphasize a great deal, 'you earned this grade. I don't give grades. I evaluate the degree of learning that you have demonstrated.'"\nJunior Tamilyn Millspaugh is majoring in telecommunications and Jewish studies with a minor in Hebrew.\n"If I got a 'B' and I had told myself I wanted an 'A,' I would talk myself into a higher grade that I didn't necessarily deserve," Millspaugh said. "I would make the professor believe that I deserved an 'A.'"\nSocial work's Byers thinks students have misguided perceptions about what entitles them to a high grade. She thinks some students believe that if they show up to class, and they do some of the work, then they should get an 'A.'\n"No," Byers said. "You have to produce 'A' work. Attendance is a minimum requirement."\nThe Economic Incentive\nThe average GPA course grade for all students in all courses hovered around 2.89 between fall 1979 and spring of 1986, but then began to increase in fall 1986, climbing to 3.13 by second semester 2000-01. In 1990 it broke the 3.0 mark. In the same year, IU began using a new accounting method called Responsibility Centered Management.\nRCM bases the allocation of funds per school or college on the amount of credit hours each generates. The College of Arts and Sciences (COAS) produces the majority of undergraduate credit hours, totaling 520,623 in 2000-2001, generating around $110 million in credit hour fees. \nThe Kelley School of Business was second, generating 131,104 credit hours. The Division of Labor Studies nets the smallest amount, 123. The 2000-2001 campus-wide undergraduate total was 857,244 credit hours, bringing in about $185 million in fees. \nRCM provides an economic incentive to attract more students. Some think that giving higher grades influences students' decisions to enter a particular school. Associate Dean of Faculties Miller doubted this was related to grade inflation.\n"It's a recognition [among faculty] that having more students in their classes rather than less generates revenue," Miller said. "There are probably a lot of faculty that don't want more students."\nThe correlation between easier classes and higher grades is not evident. Astronomy has few majors and offers less-intensive classes to non-majors, but the average grade in those courses is 2.59 -- half a grade below the average course grade campus-wide.\nThere is an incentive for professors to arouse student interest in specific areas, especially among smaller departments. If a class is offered and the enrollment is too low, budgetary demands cut the class. Departments with small enrollments may not survive.\nOfficially, RCM does not extend to the department level. \n"To implement RCM on a department by department basis would probably be a disaster," said Astronomy's Mufson. "Departments would then have to compete for students and that means any department with a curriculum perceived as difficult would be avoided. It can't be that way or you end up killing off departments"