GPAs have increased over last four decades
by David Altstadt
THE POST
"C" once stood for average.
But times have changed. Nowadays, most experts say the most common grade given in college is a B, while students must maintain a C average just to graduate. However, many professors believe that students are not smarter than their parents were in the 1960s.
Simply put, students are doing better because of grade inflation. This phenomenon has allowed students to receive higher grades than their predecessors without a corresponding rise in achievement.
"In the last 30 years, the gentlemen's C has become the gentlemen's A as the percentage of C's and A's given to students in college has reversed itself," said Arthur Levine, president of the teacher college at Columbia University.
Levine compiled a national undergraduate study from 1969, 1976 and 1993, which surveyed 9,100 students from a mix of universities and colleges. According to the data, students averaging grades of an A-minus or higher jumped from seven percent in 1969 to 26 percent in 1993. In contrast, C students declined from 25 percent to nine percent.
Grade inflation is especially prevalent in some of America's elite colleges and universities. The average grade in the average course at Duke University is approaching A-minus, and Stanford University brought back the F in 1995 after A's and B's accounted for 93 percent of all grades.
Grade inflation also has hit schools in Ohio. Ohio University's mean grade point average increased from 2.4 in the mid-1960s to 2.935 Winter Quarter of this year. The 2.4 mean GPA is an estimate because OU did not save the grade distribution files prior to 1986, said Bill Jones, OU university registrar.
OU has not conducted any studies about grade inflation. However, administrators have confronted the presumed rise in grades by making it more difficult to graduate with honor. For students entering fall 1995-96 or later, the GPA requirements to receive awards increased:
cum laude changed from 3.0-3.499 to 3.5-3.749.
the magna cum laude category was created for 3.75 to 3.899.
summa cum laude rose from 3.5-4.0 to 3.9-4.0.
These new standards will affect seniors graduating this year. But OU did not change this graduation policy because of perceived grade inflation, said David Onley, a faculty senate member.
Grades also have risen at other Ohio private and public universities without serious intervention by their administrations. Kenyon College's GPA rose from 2.60 to 3.18 in a 33-year span. Ohio State experienced a moderate increase during the last 20 years from a 2.651 to a 2.811 mean GPA.
However, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College and Lorain County Community College had little change during the past 20 years. Their mean GPAs have increased only by a few hundredths since the 1970s. Some experts argue that institutions such as OU, Kenyon, Duke and Stanford have experienced grade inflation at a greater scale because of their dedication to a more selective admission.
On paper, OU now has better students, therefore an increase in mean GPAs would be expected. ACT composite scores for incoming freshman at OU have increased from 20.2 in 1986 to 23.9 in 1998. SAT composite scores also rose from 1029 to 1115 during that same time.
Kip Howard, OU admissions director, said the rise in grades at OU has more to do with the quality of students than grade inflation. Because OU became selective in its admission during the mid 1980s, incoming freshman have to obtain a 3.0 cumulative GPA in high school. The average GPA earned in high school by incoming freshmen is even higher at 3.4.
"This GPA requirement is a drastic change from earlier decades when the student body at OU could earn a wide array of grades in high school and still get admitted here," he said.
However, Howard said the type
of high school student who goes to college has broadened through the years.
"It used to be an elite thing to go to college," he said. "Now it is more about access - everybody wants to go to college because it is the only way to get a job."
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