"A" = Average

Link:
CARPE DIEM: Today's Grade-Inflated, Lake Wobegon World; Letter Grade of A Now Most Common College Grade

 

This makes me slightly less proud of my 3.67, lol

 

No wonder my Public School GPA was lower than Private School GPA's.

 

An interesting chart.

Maybe there is more to this data than meets the eye. Who signs up for each of these categories (what are their ages, experience, and motivation)?

I wonder why the curves are essentially parallel after 1960.

 

Specifically, what happened between 1960 and 1970s (hard to tell year range in chart)?

 

It looks like the spike in grade inflation happened from 1964 onwards. Isn't the 1960s considered to be the drug revolution? Even Professor Timothy Leary was doing LSD trips at that time.

 

I would wager it had something to do with the Vietnam War.

 

While there's certainly been grade inflation I believe this is affected by two phenomena.

1. The need to avoid the draft during the 60s by attending college.
2. The social paradigms of instructors at private (elite) schools and public (average) schools. If they're supposed to be A students, they get A grades, etc.

 

That is an excellent point.

 

This speaks to exactly what I was asking about with my thread concerning grade inflation. Thank you for this statistic. I have a research paper that is due in a few weeks and I think I am going to research and write on this subject.

 

Here is a hypothesis:

High school education improved in the sixties and seventies resulting in students being better prepared to enter college.

True or False? I do not know.

 

False (anecdotally).

It seems like high school has been dumbed down over the last 75 years (not improved), so wouldn't there be a commensurate decline in college grades? There are so many variables that have been pointed out in this thread.

My grandmother was born in 1908 and she graduated high school and she could conjugate a verb. How many of today's high school graduates can do that? How many college graduates can do that? Please don't confuse conjugate with conjugal. lol

 

For several years in the 90s I volunteered at the annual DOE Science Bowl for high school students. The head of a NASA center told us that the competitors had knowledge that he only obtained as an UG (of course the students I met were top of their classes in science and math).

I also realized that some of these students could be performing medical procedures on me in coming years and I sure am glad to realize there are many smart students around.

I do agree that over the last ten years or so I've seen a decline in command of the English language from new engineering graduates.

 

Human intelligence isn't increasing or decreasing, but the amount of knowledge that is held by the current generation is definitely greater than previous generations. Someone could probably argue that grade inflation is actually a reflection of greater knowledge (I would not). So why are grades now markedly higher for subject areas that haven't changed?

 

I've seen 3 really good points...first the Vietnam War most likely had an effect on grades, especially since although some people may have used college to avoid the draft, most either did not or could not.

Second, the amount of knowledge available to students over the years has increased to staggering proportions. Imagine having Google in 3rd grade.

Third…I’d be curious to see how financial aid availability and the increased amounts of money distributed follow the curve. After all, schools have become more of a “business” than the traditional halls of higher learning and if a school is a “business” then the students are definitely the “customer”.

I would also venture a guess that over time, with so much knowledge sharing that curriculums have likely become increasingly standardized and less subjective (that’s a guess of course) which might impact grades.

 

Could people actually be getting smarter? Just throwing it out there...

-Matt

 

Could people at private schools be smarter than people at public schools? Many well-to-do parents pay big bucks to get their smarter-than-average children into private schools instead of public schools.

Ah another variable...

 

A = Average? Well, the word Average starts with the letter A, so it must be that A means Average.

 

Its entirely related to expectation. I posted final grades for 3 different online schools this week. 4 of the 5 courses had an average grade between 84 and 88. One was 91 because it only had 6 students. 1 that ends soon will be under 84 because there are 2 Fs.

I REGULARLY have students tell me that I grade the hardest of any of their online professors. I've given students a 70 on a paper and had them tell me that they have all As. Students (and its mostly adult learners not entitled kids) believe that fulfilling all of the course requirements should be an A and seem to indicate to me that points should only be taken for being late or being short of the minimum content requested.

 

This is the way it is in many online classes. No question of quality involved, just finish the requirements and get an "A" is the expectation and often the rule.