To address issues surrounding grade inflation at the University, the Undergraduate Council is seeking feedback from students and faculty on three proposals that aim to “shore up the integrity of our grades,” the council’s chairman said.
“Grade inflation is a problem because the average grade is going upwards and the highest you can go is an A-plus,” council chairperson and associate history professor Ian McNeely said. “The fear is that, if left unchecked, grade inflation will make student grades and transcripts less valuable as indicators of academic achievement.”
The Undergraduate Council became aware of the issue in 2006, when University associate economics professor Mark Thoma discovered through a detailed analysis of different departments’ grades from 1992 to 2004 that grades were steadily going up. However, McNeely said social scientists could not determine precisely why that was happening.
Students and faculty can discuss the proposals at town meetings or the Undergraduate Council’s blog, http://gradeculture.uoregon.edu, set up to discuss grading culture at the University.
The University Senate will hear the three proposals at its May meeting and could enact them by the fall at the earliest.
McNeely said the proposals addressed not only the grade inflation itself, but also the culture behind grading.
The first proposal would require each department to create its own flexible grading standards and to make them public on their Web sites. The second aims to give University instructors statistics about comparable classes. The third would add information on students’ transcripts indicating the percentage of students who received As in each class.
“Our objective is to have a discussion about grade culture and not give the impression that we’re trying to lower people’s grades,” McNeely said.
Students who participated in the Undergraduate Council and worked on the proposals offered different perspectives.
“Too many of my friends have chosen classes knowing they would get an easy A,” University junior and council member Jordynn Didlick said. “I know many of us believe our grade is the ultimate goal to succeed in school, and though a high GPA does get you further to grad school, we lose sight of the actual information we could be gaining from this experience. I know I personally will study for a test, take it and then forget everything that I learned within a few days.”
University junior Drew Terhune, another student member of the Undergraduate Council, said he has noticed that grade inflation not only causes students to get disproportional grades in relation to the amount of scholarship put into a class, but it also causes students to think twice about taking classes.
“Students have to become hyper-defensive about their GPAs, since grad schools and some employers are racheting up their GPA standards,” he said. “That discourages students from taking hard classes, from exploring outside of their major and from really having the kind of broad, enriching education that college used to be about.”
Didlick is concerned students are focusing on grades rather than the classes from which they receive grades.
“Students may not deserve their As,” said Didlick, who also helped create the
Undergraduate Council’s blog. “Many of us may not realize our actual level in a subject. By not knowing where we stand, we are ultimately lost as to what our full potential could be.”
McNeely said he thought these proposals could do good in both the short and long term if the University Senate approves the proposals.
“It’s an almost unique chance to bring students, faculty and GTFs together in a conversation on an important issue,” McNeely said. “In the long run, we want to shore up the integrity of our grades without adversely affecting students or encroaching on the freedoms of instructors.”
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What’s in an ‘A’? asks University council
Daily Emerald
April 6, 2010
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