How-to-Study Blog

Data show that college grade inflation is a continuing trend. It would be nice to believe that this is because college students are getting better all the time. Unfortunately, there are two more plausible explanations for this trend. One is that student evaluations of faculty have become an important part of decisions about tenure, promotion, and merit pay increases. To put it bluntly, many faculty are reluctant to give students poor grades lest students reciprocate by giving them negative evaluations. This is especially the case for junior faculty. A second explanation is that in today’s tight job market, potential employers don’t even bother interviewing students whose GPA is below the A- range. Faculty tend to give higher grades to help their students gain employment in their chosen fields.

A grade in a college course ranges from A at the top to F at the bottom, with B, C, and D in between. By definition, “C” represents average performance. Statistically, most performances fall within the average range. Yet, a grade of “C” is viewed by students as a stigmatic failure. Pity the the poor faculty member who assigns a student a “C.” That faculty member is likely in for a series of unpleasant meetings with the student, and hard to believe, sometimes their parents. It is not unusual for a student challenge to go to the dean’s office or even all the way to the president’s office.

Grade inflation needs to stop somewhere. Some institutions have taken on this challenge, and more need to.