Grade inflation decreases at CMU

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CMU administrators say they have made strides in reducing grade inflation at the university.

During the “Reconnecting with Academic Standards: Engaging a Campus to Address Grade Inflation” meeting, a team of administrators said research indicates grade inflation has declined for the first time in 10 years.

Gary Shapiro, College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences dean, said grade inflation is an increase in grades over a period of years that does not correspond with an increase in student achievement.

“What that means is, kids are coming into Central and getting higher grades without scoring any better on standardized tests or other things,” he said.

Shapiro said grade inflation at CMU has been a problem for a number of years.

“There has been a significant increase in grades since the mid 1980s,” he said. “The average grades moved from 2.68 in the fall of 1984 to just below 3.0 in the fall of 2000.”

Some argue grades are higher because students are learning more than before, but Shapiro said recent data is contradictory to this statement.

“People say, ‘Well, maybe they are learning more,’ but data indicates that students are spending less time on class work than they did in the past,” he said.

Catherine Riordan, Academic Affairs interim vice provost, said understanding student achievement is an important step toward understanding how grade inflation works.

“Student achievement in this context is what the students know, are able to do and value relative to the objectives defined in our curricula and courses,” Riordan said.

A Central study indicates different colleges within the university have different levels of inflation.

“Temporary faculty tend to give higher grades, and the study also seems to indicate that the College of Education and Human Services has the highest level of inflation,” Shapiro said.

However, Shapiro said the problem is not limited to one college.

“Five out of the six colleges here have grade inflation. The only one that doesn’t is the College of Health Professions, which is a relatively new college and has had some great changes put to it,” he said.

CMU is not alone when it comes to grade inflation, Shapiro said.

“It is fairly common at a large number of colleges, even at elite colleges like Harvard,” he said.

The reasons for grade inflation are numerous, Shapiro said.

“Some say that it started in the 1960s as a way to get a deferment from the draft, and some say that it’s because faculty are concerned about student evaluations,” he said. Riordan said the relationship between better grades and student evaluations is not as large as some perceive.

“Actually, this relationship is quite small,” she said. “Nationally and at CMU, it accounts for less than 10 percent of the variance in either measure.”

Meetings between the administrators and Academic Senate, Provost’s Office and Council of Department Chairs have taken place to educate the community.

“We’ve wallpapered the campus with (brochures), and people were genuinely shocked to learn about how serious a problem this was,” Riordan said.

The two-year effort shows signs of making an impact, Riordan said. Numbers show the mean grade-point average decreased from 2.94 to 2.93.

“It’s a start,” she said. “This really demonstrates the power of information.”