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The author is depressingly right. The people this is ironically going to hurt most: The really smart/hard-working students who attend public universities. I us

by whack 10y ago

The author is depressingly right. The people this is ironically going to hurt most: The really smart/hard-working students who attend public universities. I used to be one such student. I attended a large public university that had a great deal of "intellectual diversity." The majority of the students were average, in terms of their drive/motivation/intellect. However, there was also a numerically large minority that was just as talented and driven, as the students whom you would find in the Ivy Leagues. Which is why companies like Google and Facebook still showed up to recruit at our college, every single year. Which is why elite post-grad programs like Stanford's recruited a lot of our graduates, every year. They wouldn't be interested in the average student at our college, but they were certainly interested in recruiting the top 10-20% of our student base. With grade inflation though, if everyone's grades are bunched up together in the 3.8+ range, it becomes extremely hard to distinguish between the top students and the average students. And one unlucky bad grade is all it takes for a top student to suddenly seem like an average student. In such a world, without any reliable way to distinguish between the top students and the average students, companies like Google would not even bother showing up to recruit at public universities like ours, and would instead restrict themselves to selective universities like Stanford. One of the most important roles of the university system, is to serve as engines for social mobility. "Even if you're born into an average family and attend an average public university, if you work really hard and get good grades, you can still get a post-graduate degree from an elite university, and get recruited into elite jobs." Grade inflation, or getting rid of grades entirely, may lead to equality of outcome within a university, but it's also going to severely weaken one of the most important mechanisms for social mobility.

vitobcn 10y ago
I find this graph outlining the frequency of different grades from 1949-2009 to be enlightening [1]. Around 1940's only 15% of grades were "A", and in the last few years they went up to close to 45%. The source data is coming from research compiled by Rojstaczer and Healy [2]. --- [1]: http://pazymino1evolutionliteracy.blogs.umassd.edu/files/2012/01/Grade-Distribution-American-Colleges-Evolution-Literacy.jpg http://pazymino1evolutionliteracy.blogs.umassd.edu/files/201... [2]: http://rampages.us/profjhonn/wp-content/uploads/sites/111/2015/10/Where-A-Is-Ordinary-2012.pdf http://rampages.us/profjhonn/wp-content/uploads/sites/111/20...
- chestervonwinch 10y ago
  Here is a better version: http://www.gradeinflation.com/figure8.png http://www.gradeinflation.com/figure8.png and another interesting one in addition: http://www.gradeinflation.com/figure1.png http://www.gradeinflation.com/figure1.png
  - Sacho 10y ago
    How can you differentiate between grade inflation and knowledge inflation? Perhaps the increase in grades is because the difficulty of the material doesn't rise as fast as our ability to teach it and students' ability to learn?
    - chestervonwinch 10y ago
      I'm inclined to agree about knowledge inflation (in the sense explained in the following paragraphs), but I don't think it has to do with the perceived difficulty of subjects changing, or necessarily with instructors inability to teach at a level of rigor that might pull the average down (by increasing perceived difficulty). Regarding "knowledge inflation", I'm not sure that we see an inflation in knowledge per se (at least in a way that affects grade inflation in college courses), but I think what we do see is an increase in 1) quantitative methods, and 2) cross-talk between fields. This influences the subject matter people in a variety of fields are expected to know (e.g., the amount of math, comp. sci., stats, etc...) , and thus, I suppose, inflates the expected knowledge in this sense. Anecdata: I teach calculus 1, and guess how many math majors are enrolled? Zero. It's mostly bio, and other sciencey fields. This affects how I teach (and grade!) calculus. I'm willing to bet other courses -- like intro programming, intro stats, etc... -- experience something similar. Is this an explanatory factor for grade inflation? I don't know. There's obviously a huge number of things to consider.
ruste 10y ago
At least in my case it seems that the distribution of GPAs becoming more skew left and closely grouped has made it much easier to distinguish myself. Companies recognize that GPA is becoming a less useful metric and are quick to consider anyone who presents them with anything else to consider. I've had very little trouble finding work or getting interviews because I've mainly focused on personal projects and actual experience rather than school. Anyone could, in a month, do more to distinguish themselves from the pack by completing a personal project than by hunkering down and raising their GPA by a few points.
eldavido 10y ago
I think the culture of the institution plays a big role, too. I had my ass lovingly handed to me by the good professors of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They were more than happy to hand out Bs and Cs even with "a good effort" and wouldn't bat at eye at giving a D or F to someone who didn't do the homework / didn't do well on tests / didn't show up to class. I always got the sense that big public schools have more of a "your education is your responsibility" ethic about them, encouraged by the class sizes (large -- hundreds of students -- especially in lower-level classes) and general "machine like" feel. Whereas private schools, with their smaller class sizes, huge endowments, etc. felt more like the student's education is the professor's responsibility, and a failing grade for the student was as much a reflection of the instructor's ability to teach, as the student's work/study habits, or academic performance. In any case, I'd really love to see how much grade inflation affects schools like the big 10, vs. the Ivy League. I suspect it's much less of a problem in big anonymous public schools, but just a hunch.
- no_flags 10y ago
  "wouldn't bat at eye at giving a D or F to someone who didn't do the homework / didn't do well on tests / didn't show up to class" Are there schools where this isn't the case? I sure hope not. When I was in college nearly every class's grade was determined at least 50% by test scores. Then 10-15% homework, and the rest projects.

by whack 10y ago

vitobcn 10y ago

I find this graph outlining the frequency of different grades from 1949-2009 to be enlightening [1]. Around 1940's only 15% of grades were "A", and in the last few years they went up to close to 45%. The source data is coming from research compiled by Rojstaczer and Healy [2]. --- [1]: http://pazymino1evolutionliteracy.blogs.umassd.edu/files/2012/01/Grade-Distribution-American-Colleges-Evolution-Literacy.jpg http://pazymino1evolutionliteracy.blogs.umassd.edu/files/201... [2]: http://rampages.us/profjhonn/wp-content/uploads/sites/111/2015/10/Where-A-Is-Ordinary-2012.pdf http://rampages.us/profjhonn/wp-content/uploads/sites/111/20...

chestervonwinch 10y ago
Here is a better version: http://www.gradeinflation.com/figure8.png http://www.gradeinflation.com/figure8.png and another interesting one in addition: http://www.gradeinflation.com/figure1.png http://www.gradeinflation.com/figure1.png
- Sacho 10y ago
  How can you differentiate between grade inflation and knowledge inflation? Perhaps the increase in grades is because the difficulty of the material doesn't rise as fast as our ability to teach it and students' ability to learn?
  - chestervonwinch 10y ago
    I'm inclined to agree about knowledge inflation (in the sense explained in the following paragraphs), but I don't think it has to do with the perceived difficulty of subjects changing, or necessarily with instructors inability to teach at a level of rigor that might pull the average down (by increasing perceived difficulty). Regarding "knowledge inflation", I'm not sure that we see an inflation in knowledge per se (at least in a way that affects grade inflation in college courses), but I think what we do see is an increase in 1) quantitative methods, and 2) cross-talk between fields. This influences the subject matter people in a variety of fields are expected to know (e.g., the amount of math, comp. sci., stats, etc...) , and thus, I suppose, inflates the expected knowledge in this sense. Anecdata: I teach calculus 1, and guess how many math majors are enrolled? Zero. It's mostly bio, and other sciencey fields. This affects how I teach (and grade!) calculus. I'm willing to bet other courses -- like intro programming, intro stats, etc... -- experience something similar. Is this an explanatory factor for grade inflation? I don't know. There's obviously a huge number of things to consider.

ruste 10y ago

At least in my case it seems that the distribution of GPAs becoming more skew left and closely grouped has made it much easier to distinguish myself. Companies recognize that GPA is becoming a less useful metric and are quick to consider anyone who presents them with anything else to consider. I've had very little trouble finding work or getting interviews because I've mainly focused on personal projects and actual experience rather than school. Anyone could, in a month, do more to distinguish themselves from the pack by completing a personal project than by hunkering down and raising their GPA by a few points.

eldavido 10y ago

I think the culture of the institution plays a big role, too. I had my ass lovingly handed to me by the good professors of University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. They were more than happy to hand out Bs and Cs even with "a good effort" and wouldn't bat at eye at giving a D or F to someone who didn't do the homework / didn't do well on tests / didn't show up to class. I always got the sense that big public schools have more of a "your education is your responsibility" ethic about them, encouraged by the class sizes (large -- hundreds of students -- especially in lower-level classes) and general "machine like" feel. Whereas private schools, with their smaller class sizes, huge endowments, etc. felt more like the student's education is the professor's responsibility, and a failing grade for the student was as much a reflection of the instructor's ability to teach, as the student's work/study habits, or academic performance. In any case, I'd really love to see how much grade inflation affects schools like the big 10, vs. the Ivy League. I suspect it's much less of a problem in big anonymous public schools, but just a hunch.

no_flags 10y ago
"wouldn't bat at eye at giving a D or F to someone who didn't do the homework / didn't do well on tests / didn't show up to class" Are there schools where this isn't the case? I sure hope not. When I was in college nearly every class's grade was determined at least 50% by test scores. Then 10-15% homework, and the rest projects.