GRADE INFLATION

[maczen]

I am including the rough draft of a white paper that I wrote for one of my classes at DeVry. The forum has slowed down to some degree so I thought that this might give you guys something to read.. If nothing else you can point and laugh!!!

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[maczen]

Running head: GRADE INFLATION


Grade Inflation: Problem and Solution
In APA Style
Billy Louis Haines III
DeVry University

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Abstract

This white Paper defines the problem of grade inflation as well as the underlying causes and problematic effects of this global issue. Attention is given to the various forms of grade inflation which include grade compression as well as content deflation. Four problematic factors of grade inflation are provided in the form of the student, parent, instructor and institutional factors respectively. Current localized solutions are listed as well as the author’s recommendation for a global, standardized hybrid solution to grade inflation, or at least as much of an explanation of this recommendation that could be accommodated on a white paper limited to ten pages.





Grade inflation is an ever-present, ever-evolving issue that damages students, faculty and even the credibility of the institutions of higher learning which have been tasked with the education of our future leaders. There is currently no “total package” solution to grade inflation available although some schools have implemented some creative and unique strategies to help curb grade inflation on a localized level. This white paper will explain why these solutions are only temporary “bandages” that, in their current form, will not resolve the issue of grade inflation. Furthermore, these solutions can actually further damage the students currently attending the schools that implement such policies. The reader will gain an understanding of various causes, the effects and even one viable solution to the problem of grade inflation in America’s schools and universities. In fact, this paper stipulates the criteria recommended for a hybrid solution that incorporates the “best practices” of current solutions and combines these methods to create a standardized solution to grade inflation.

The definition: Grade inflation is, simply put, the effect of schools awarding high grades, “A’s”, as well as honors to students that do not deserve them. This becomes an issue when it occurs on a large scale basis. Unfortunately, this is an issue that is running rampant across all facets of modern academia from your local elementary school all the way up to the most prestigious universities in America. Here is an excerpt from a popular publication in regard to grade inflation at an Ivy League Institution: “..eight out of every 10 Harvard students graduate with honors and nearly half receive A's in their courses.. (USAToday, 2002)” Even America’s top schools have been unable to tackle this issue which leads us to the various causes as well as the effects of grade inflation.
The cause: We must first ascertain the cause of any problem prior to locating a plausible and effective solution. In regard to grade inflation the cause is a multifaceted one. In all actuality the underlying causes of grade inflation could be attributed to all parties involved. This primarily includes, but is not limited to the students, parents, teachers and even the institutions.

The student factor: Students want higher grades but do not necessarily want to work for these grades and this contributes to grade inflation as students who do not receive good grades are more likely to complain or provide poor course critiques for an instructor. Unfortunately, in many modern institutions these critiques can inhibit an instructor’s advancement. This is especially true of an instructor that has not yet received tenure. “In some cases, merit raises, promotion, and tenure of faculty are heavily dependent on classroom teaching evaluations performed by students (Hunt, Gardin, 2007, p.21).”

The parent factor: Parents want to see their children receive good grades. This combined with the fact that parents want to see the money that they spend on their child’s college education go to good use contributes to what I refer to as the parent factor. Parents are likely to follow procedures to post complaints which can create issues for faculty. Many teachers will award better grades to avoid both the student as well as the parent factor. This particular factor can be viewed more concisely in an editorial I cited which provides insight into one of the challenges a school may face that could lead to voluntary grade inflation. There is no mandated standard and thus some schools grade on a 6 point scale and others on a 10 pt scale. The author makes a point of parent’s favoring a more lax grading system in order to make their students more competitive with other schools instead of concentrating on a stronger student (Editorial, August 26, 2007).
The instructor and institution factors: Although it is easy to pinpoint both the student and parent factors and how they contribute to grade inflation, the instructor/institution factors become much more complex and in some ways more convoluted. This is because they are, in some ways, related to the aforementioned factors; however, contribute their own diverse causes. This is portrayed quite well in an article written on the subject of grade inflation by a Professor Pressman who makes some valid points with good references in regard to the fact that grade inflation is not due to smarter, more prepared students. He points out that SAT and GRE scores are lower while more students are in remedial classes than ever. He blames grade inflation on faculty bending and giving unwarranted good grades due to student complaints, dropouts and thus cancelled classes, student evaluations for non-tenured instructors which can lead to the loss of future teaching positions (Pressman, 2007). An excerpt from another publication further elaborates on the complications of the student/instructor factors; “In some cases, merit raises, promotion, and tenure of faculty are heavily dependent on classroom teaching evaluations performed by students (Hunt, Gardin, 2007, p.21).”
This is demonstrative of how the various factors intertwine to create a larger problem. Unfortunately, the problem must first be identified and some institutions are in a state of denial when it comes to the issue of grade inflation. One example of this would be the Head of Exeter School of Law who publically states that grade inflation at Exeter is due to better, smarter students. The statistics provided demonstrate between 59 and 93 percent honors, this is well beyond the realm of a modern marvel of “super students” (Begum, 2008; Husnara, 2008).

Yet another form of grade inflation that can be attributed primarily to both instructors and institutions in regard to cause is content deflation. “Another less well known version of grade inflation is ‘content deflation’ where students receive the same grades as students in the past but with less work required and less learning (Schiming, n.a.).” Authors Chan, Hao and Suen offer even more insight into the causes of grade inflation in their white paper from An International Economic Review. This paper offers many reasons for grade inflation which include a lack of standardization as well as grade compression. Grade compression is defined by the lack of ability to score beyond an A+, therefore limiting top performance students if a more lax grading system is used in lower grade scales. In other words, if mediocre performing students receive A’s then what incentive is there for a student to delve into the realm of deeper learning? (Chan, 2007; Hao, 2007; Suen, 2007)
The effects: The most obvious effect of grade inflation is an employer’s inability to discern between an average and advanced student based on that student’s GPA or grade point average. Chan, Hao and Suen come to the rescue again by giving credence to this dilemma via a thorough explanation. “When a school gives a lot of good grades, the labor market cannot fully distinguish whether this is due to an overly liberal grading standard or whether the school is blessed with a large proportion of high-ability students (Chan, Hao, Suen, 2007, p.1066).” If employers are unable to determine the merit of a student by reviewing that student’s GPA then this will inevitably lead to a decrease in the validity of a diploma or degree and force the labor market to further rely on alternative means of making these determinations such as professional certifications. In my opinion the most devastating of the many problems associated with grade inflation is that which the students must suffer. As previously mentioned grade compression and content deflation can combine to place students in a substandard academic environment and allow these students to achieve both a respectable GPA and even a degree without the educational reward gained from deeper learning. This can lead to high school graduates that are not prepared for college and even college graduates that may find themselves at a loss of preparation for the labor market. This is not due to a lack of talent on the student’s behalf but a lack of organization and as you will soon become aware of a lack of standardization in regard to institutions.

Currently implemented solutions: To date schools are left to fend for themselves when it comes to grade inflation. Localized solutions are present at many academic institutions that have ventured far enough to pioneer these various fixes. However, any local solution to a problem that spans across the entire industry is merely a bandage applied to a much larger wound. That does not imply that these solutions are not effective if mandated, applied and regulated on a global level.

One example of these pioneering solutions was recommended by Professor Abbott who is a Teacher at Fairfield University in Southern New England. He offered a method to curb grade inflation at his University: “I proposed that two new items be added to each course listed on our students’ transcripts: the number of students in the course section and the average grade awarded. At the end of the transcript, a cumulative average of all the grades in all of the course sections would be listed alongside the student’s own cumulative average. Anyone examining the transcript could thus see how well the student had performed relative to the other students in his or her courses (Abbott, 2008, p.34).”

Nancy Weiss Malkiel recommended a strategy to curb grade inflation at Princeton University. Her method was implemented in 2003 and limits the number of A’s assignable to 3 out of 10. Malkiel argues that employers thought this an agreeable change and that it should not negatively impact the student’s competitiveness in the labor market (Arenson, 2004). Although this is an ingenious concept in my opinion it does include an inherent flaw in the design when implemented on a localized basis. Many prospective employers do not follow institutional grading policies and will be faced with a hiring decision between a Princeton “B” student and an “A” student of equal caliber from another school that does not enforce such a policy. It has been argued that the students will be the ones to suffer from such an implementation as stated so eloquently by Miss Ellis-Christensen who wrote a very titillating article on the subject. “While universities attempt to address grade inflation, students are left to either benefit or suffer from the results of these attempts. Their grades may reflect grading practices that are either too harsh or too soft (Ellis-Christensen, 2008).” This leads us to my proposal for a standardized, hybrid solution to grade inflation.

The proposal: After much research and careful consideration of all parties both involved and affected by grade inflation and any resultant fix implemented I have finally drawn a conclusion in regard to a solution. An effective solution will require a multi-tiered, hybrid approach that will include the best practices of current implementations while requiring a standardization which must be enforced by a governing body. Both of the aforementioned localized solutions would prove quite effective if implemented on a global scale. We must further eliminate all of the previously mentioned factors that contribute to all forms of grade inflation.
First is the elimination of the parent, student, instructor and institutional factors. The parent factor will be eliminated by a standardized grading scale. Either a six or ten point scale must be selected and implemented universally throughout academia. As long as all schools apply solutions equally and simultaneously then the parent factor will be successfully halted. The student factor can also be remedied with a couple of slight adjustments to the current system. If Professor Malkiel’s approach of limiting A’s to three out of every ten students is applied universally then this would help curb the student factor. Furthermore, student course critiques should not be imperative to an instructor’s tenure. The standardization process that will be mentioned soon should incorporate deeper learning by design and alleviate the possibility of student’s skimming their way through a college degree. In regard to the instructor and institutional factors, Professor Malkiel’s approach will successfully eliminate grade compression and the removal of student critique power will further eliminate content deflation as teacher’s will no longer have to make a class easier to entice students to provide positive feedback or not to drop classes. All levels of classes will become tougher and more competitive forcing deeper learning upon the students, which is actually a good thing. I believe that Professor Abbott was on to something with his previous recommendations. These recommendations surface again and again the more I researched this topic. Here are two excerpts from a Professor Schiming’s article on the MNSU website; “The use of a more finely tuned grading scale (Schiming, n.a.).” and “The use of the overall class grade in the transcript (Schiming, n.a.).” It is imperative that official transcripts be altered and enforced in such a way as to demonstrate that schools are complying with the “Malkiel Approach”. Ultimately, all aforementioned solutions should be mandated and implemented and a governing body should be elected to enforce standardization and audit school adherence. This is the only effective solution.

In conclusion, grade inflation is a global issue that comes in many forms. It currently affects all parties involved in a negative manner and requires immediate attention as well as a global solution. The tools to curb this issue are already in place and simply need refining as well as a standardized body to implement and regulate these solutions globally.



Begum, & Husnara, (2008, June 23). Varying degrees of success:
grade inflation hits profession. Lawyer,
22 Issue 25, p64-64, 2/3p.

Pressman, S. (2007, September). The Economics of Grade
Inflation. Challenge (05775132), 50(5), 93-102.
Retrieved September 21, 2008, from Business Source Premier
database.

EDITORIAL: Earning an A is supposed to be tough: Improving
education would serve Radford students
better than grade inflation. (2007, August 26). Roanoke
Times, The (VA), Retrieved September
21, 2008, from Newspaper Source database.

Chan, W., Hao, L., & Suen, W. (2007, August). A SIGNALING THEORY
OF GRADE INFLATION. International
Economic Review, 48(3), 1065-1090. Retrieved September 21,
2008, doi:10.1111/j.1468-
2354.2007.00454.x



Hunt, T., & Gardin, F. (2007, May). What's in a Grade: Faculty
Responsibility for Grade Inflation. Athletic
Therapy Today, 12(3), 19-22.


ABBOTT, W. M. (2008, January). The Politics of Grade Inflation:
A Case Study. Change: The magazine of
higher learning, 40 n1, 32-37


Arenson, K. W. (2004, April 27). A Curb on Grade Inflation.
Metro Briefing | New Jersey: Princeton: A
Curb on Grade Inflation, pp. p6, 1p.

EDITORIAL: Ivy League Grade Inflation. (2002, February 7).
USAToday. Retrieved September 28, 2008, from:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2002/02/08/edtwof2.htm

Ellis-Christensen, T. (2008). What is Grade Inflation?.
Retrieved September 28, 2008, from :

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-grade-inflation.htm

Schiming, R. C. (n.a.). Grade Inflation Article. Retrieved
September 28, 2008, from :

http://www.mnsu.edu/cetl/teachingresources/articles/gradeinflation.html

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[maczen]

The good news is... If grade inflation continues to rise then so will the demand for professional certifications. (This is how I am justifying this post in our Cisco forum.. LoL)

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[lerdalt]

Nice job. It's such a sad but true thing that's going on. I remember when I went through my college program there were students that graduated and several of us were like "WTF? How did they manage to pass?"

I've heard rumor through a friend of mine that worked at a high school, and had a student that was one of the star athletes, but was failing a class. The parents went to the teacher and asked him to change the grade so he'd pass and be eligible for sports and a scholarship. My kudos to the teacher for standing his ground and saying he wouldn't just change the grade, but would be willing to work with the student to help him bring up his own grade.

Sadly, parents didn't like that, and went to the school administration, and eventually got the grades changed. The way I look at it, these students are going to be the future in the work place, and all this probably taught them is that things can just be handed to them and not earned.

 

[CiscoGuy33]

Billy,

Nice paper and I think you are right, when all else is equal then it is nice to have some certs to show what you know, especially Cisco certs that tend to be harder!!!

I would not like any plan that said you will have 3 As, 3 Bs, 2 Cs and 2 Ds - I have taught about 75 college level classes over the past 9 years I have had semesters where most of the class got "A"s and some where only a few did. Especially in Cisco classes where you might have a semester of students that are really into it or you might have a class of people who just think that they will make big bucks $$$$ with a Cisco cert.

I always found that (and I pushed the students) the grades will equal out over time. I had a pretty equal distribution of "A"s and "B"s as well as "D"s and "F"s - very few fell into the "C" range - I found they either were really into it and then tended to work hard or totally did not belong in networking!

Once again - nice paper!!


E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +

 

[burtsbees]

Not to mention some of the Cisco Academy program instructors...unlike Gene, of course---I have seen one or two---one was my first semester of CCNA---the instructor was a CCNP and couldn't help me with a simple static routing problem, yet he claimed to be going for CCIE written that year...

Burt

 

[maczen]

I know what you guys mean. Sadly, I had an instructor like that in my Network Academy program. I will admit that he was knowledgeable albeit not about Cisco but more about networking in general. It worked out though.. If I would have been able to pick my instructor's brain then I would have never meandered over to this forum.. Then I wouldn't be the Cool Dude that I am today!!! LoL

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[CiscoGuy33]

Burt,

Thanks, I always had a GREAT following in any class that I taught! I felt it was my job to understand it better then the students and to be able to answer quesations as well as do demos of just about anything they asked! It kept me on my toes

I know those instructors, having met some of them at the Cisco Academy conventions that were held in conjunction with Networkers (CiscoLive) several times - they were just plain SCARRY !!!

There was a lot a rumors that the CCNA was split in 2 parts because so many of the Academy instructors could not pass the CCNA :-( I also heard that it was the number of high school academy programs - those students (and their teachers) could not pass the CCNA!!

Just some thoughts!

E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +

 

[maczen]

I could see High School Instructors not being CCNA qualified but I believe that someone teaching the Network Academy outside of that environment should definitely be CCNA or above.

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[CiscoGuy33]

Billy,

That is the trouble, since they allow high schools to be Network Academies, they normally get the HS teachers that do the other computer classes, many who have NEVER heard of Cisco prior to them becoming an Academy :-(

Something that I have learned - Just because you can teach does not mean you can teach CISCO AND Just because you know Cisco, does not mean you can TEACH Cisco!!!

One of my first "train the trainer" instructors had more knowledge about Cisco and networking - like 30 years, I think he knew Mr. Ethernet and Mr. Token Ring HOWEVER, he could not teach his way out of a wet paper bag :-( one-on-one he was GREAT, but try and do a lecture ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I think that ALL Cisco Academy instructors should be at the very least a CCNA before they teach a Cisco Academy class - sad thing is that they do not have to be - not sure how long Cisco gives them but it is a long time!!!

And - I was NOT a CCNA when I first started teaching in a Cisco Academy, AND I felt bad for the students, HOWEVER by my second round of classes I knew more about Cisco/networking then most people around!! I owed it to my students, did not want anyone to ever question if I knew what I was talking about!!

Just some thoughts!

E.A. Broda
CCNA, CCDA, CCAI, Network +

 

[maczen]

That makes sense, Gene.

It could actually push kids away from Cisco if their high school teacher doesn't have the ability to help them gain the necessary understanding to build that core foundation.

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI

 

[Cluebird]

When I was completing my Master's I had an instructor that would grant a C if you just showed up for class and attempted some of the work. That reemphasized the disconnect between what universities require and what businesses require.

Having been an employer, if someone "shows up and attempts some of the work" I'd fire that person quickly. I expect top performance and results. Networking is still a field where results are critical; either the network works or it doesn't. I've never had management say "you've tried to get the e-mail working but I understand you're tired, so we can wait until next week. Here's partial credit." It's either working or it's not. Results matter, especially when everything is running over converged networks!

When I taught as an adjunct, my students were told up front there would be no "partial credit" and they would work to results. They controlled their grades entirely. If they got the networks working, they got an "A", if not, they got an "F". But I would let them reattempt as many times as necessary to get it working. When it came time to pass CCNA, the students who achieved the A's always passed with high scores (930 and up). Those who received F's couldn't pass CCNA. Needless to say, I wasn't popular with many folks or some parents, but everyone is not made for networking. I view CCNA as the way to blow someone into networking or blow them out of the field early. It's nothing personal, I just don't have time to train or spoon feed idiots chasing $$$ who won't pay the price I've had to to learn Cisco.

 

[maczen]

Nice post Clue,
That is a good way of putting it! I believe that anyone who can pass CCNA has proven the aptitude for all levels of Cisco certification. So long as they continue to stay motivated and work for it.

B Haines
CCNA R&S, ETA FOI