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Monday, March 17, 2003
Central Michigan U. Administrators Describe a Small Victory in
War on Grade Inflation
By MEGAN ROONEY
A team of administrators from Central Michigan University
described their institution's struggles with grade inflation
and some of the measures they used to combat it at the annual
meeting of the American Association for Higher Education, held
here this weekend.
In a session titled "Reconnecting With Academic Standards:
Engaging a Campus to Address Grade Inflation," the Central
Michigan team reported how the mean grade-point average at the
university has climbed from under 2.8 in 1977 to over 3.0 in
2001, without any indication that the rise has been
accompanied by greater student achievement. The average grade
at Central Michigan in the 2001-2 academic year was a 2.98, or
just under a B, despite the fact that a grade of C was still
officially described as average. Nearly 40 percent of
undergraduate grades given in the fall 2001 term were A's.
"I tell my kids, if I graduated now instead of 30 years ago, I
would get high honors, too," said E. Gary Shapiro, dean of the
college of humanities and social and behavioral sciences at
Central Michigan. "It's not fair that different levels of
achievement get different grades over time. And these grades
cannot be accurate if everyone is getting high grades --
there's no meaningful distinction."
Grade inflation as been identified as a growing problem by
many institutions (The Chronicle, February 21).
But there seem to be few effective strategies to combat the
phenomenon. When the Central Michigan team asked the audience
for ideas on stopping the trend, the only suggestion offered
was to make data on grade inflation widely available so that
more professors and students could recognize the problem.
This is essentially what Central Michigan did, beginning in
the 2000-1 academic year. That's when administrators met with
the academic senate, the provost's office, and the council of
department chairs, armed with data about inflated grades in
different academic departments and accounts of courses where
the average grade in a single section was a 3.8 or above. A
brochure on grade inflation, with sections aimed at students
and faculty members, was sent to every current student,
high-school applicant, and incoming freshman, and stacks of
the brochures were left in offices across the university. "We
wallpapered the campus with them," said Catherine A. Riordan,
the interim vice provost. "People were genuinely shocked to
learn about how serious a problem this was."
A major problem that administrators at Central Michigan
identified was the correlation between high grades and glowing
student evaluations, which are often used as a basis for
teaching-excellence awards and can affect a professor's
efforts to gain tenure. In campuswide and departmental
discussions, faculty and staff members discussed different
ways of recognizing gifted teachers.
Now, two years into the campaign to turn back grade inflation,
faculty members see some evidence suggesting that their
efforts are working: Last fall the mean grade-point average
decreased slightly, from around 2.94 to 2.93, for the first
time in years.
"It's a start," said Ms. Riordan. "This demonstrates the power
of information."
The American Association for Higher Education is a national
organization of faculty and administrators that focuses on
issues of curriculum, teaching, and learning.
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Copyright 2003 by The Chronicle of Higher Education
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