A is for Average

In my original forum post I wrote “grade inflation has a negative impact on college students and it reduces the worth of a degree", After reading my two academic sources that I found using the library’s resources I believe inflation reduces the worth of a degree it also reduces the amount of effort that a student will put into their class work. Philip Babcock cited a study by C. Adelman that found 49% of Grades awarded at Harvard were an A in 2001, in 1985 that number was less than a third. Babcock also claims “it would appear that average GPAs rose between the 1960s and 2004, except for a flat spell during the 1970s” "REAL COSTS OF NOMINAL GRADE INFLATION? NEW EVIDENCE FROM STUDENT COURSE EVALUATIONS." (Article, 2010) [UNC Charlotte Libraries]. Web. 4 Apr. 2015. This piece of information alone does not mean very much, it could be that students are just getting better or professors are becoming better. Philip Babcock also found in his study that “Results indicate that average study time would be about 50% lower in a class in which the average expected grade was an “A” than in a class in which students expected a “C”. "REAL COSTS OF NOMINAL GRADE INFLATION? NEW EVIDENCE FROM STUDENT COURSE EVALUATIONS." (Article, 2010) [UNC Charlotte Libraries]. With this fact in mind it made it very clear to me to that grade inflation has a negative effect on students, but it did more than that. I stated in my original forum post that I felt it had a negative impact on students but now I understand what specific effect it has. Grade inflation reduces the will of students to put effort into their classes. this bothers me because it reduces getting a degree to something you just show up, sleep through and collect, instead of something you work for everyday or at least the majority of the week for.

The second article I reviewed was Grade Inflation: Academic Standards in Higher Education written by James F. Kay. He began his essay by describing the history of grade inflation and how to might have come into existence.  He also cited a few hypotheses by other people that could be possible explanations for the origin of grade inflation, “Other hypotheses, noted by educator Mary Biggs of the College of New Jersey, include the Vietnam War when a failing student could end up drafted – or worse” (Kay, J. F. (2012), Grade Inflation: Academic Standards in Higher Education – Edited by Lester H. Hunt. Teaching Theology & Religion, 15: 88–89. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9647.2011.00768.x). according to this hypothesis grade inflation may have started simply as professors not wanting their students to flunk out of school and end up getting drafted and dragged in to a military conflict which many did not want to take part in. he offered his own claim on the source of grade inflation, “But most of all, it was the transformation of students into consumers who actually were given the power to evaluate their teachers and to do so anonymously. No wonder positive correlations have been empirically established between easy graders and glowing course evaluations” (Kay, J. F. (2012), Grade Inflation: Academic Standards in Higher Education – Edited by Lester H. Hunt. Teaching Theology & Religion, 15: 88–89. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9647.2011.00768.x). I found this claim to be very interesting. It showed me the transition of what grade inflation used to be and what it is now. If the claim James F. Kay cited is correct then it means that grade inflation used to be something positive, a way for professors to help students stay in school and avoid being drafted in to dangerous military conflict. Now however grade inflation has a negative effect on college students. Professors no longer want to try and challenge students to do better or more. Instead they are focused on pleasing the students/consumers in their class, and what better way than to give everyone a nice A on their transcript.

My film that I viewed earlier in the semester was The House Bunny, this movie is about a playboy model who leaves Hugh Hefner’s mansion and becomes a house mother for a sorority. This movie did not make much mention of education in the movie. There was only one character named Natalie who cared about class, she was the only who ever really mentioned it. I feel that the stereotype about college age individuals being party animals and not caring about going to class helps contribute to the problem. No one ever really goes to class in these movies and I believe that it implants the idea into college students that “hey maybe I don’t really need to go to class”. Getting an education is the single most important part of going to college. Having time to do things with friends and trying out new things is also important to having a well rounded college experience. If you do nothing but go to class you’re not going to have much to talk about when you graduate. Priority needs to be given to academics and then attention and energy can be given to other things like spending time with friends or going to parties. As I mentioned before Philip Babcock found from his study that if students expect to make an A in the class they study less "REAL COSTS OF NOMINAL GRADE INFLATION? NEW EVIDENCE FROM STUDENT COURSE EVALUATIONS." (Article, 2010) [UNC Charlotte Libraries]. Movies such as this make college seem really really easy. Nobody seems to have any kind of pressure going on other than pressure created by social situations almost as if class room aspect of school is so easy that it is nothing that you need to worry. I recognize that it does not mean that college needs to be hard. It does not need to be overly difficult, but it does need to have enough of a challenge that it pushes you to get started on your work. I believe that is an experience that applies to life after college.

Over the decades that grade inflation has been around it has changed. What could have once been considered a positive thing has morphed into a negative influence on college students. Students become less likely to want to try and put effort into a class because they receive A’s or B’s for average or sub-par effort. The rise of students being seen as consumers as well has students has made professors less willing to challenge students to put forth their best efforts, instead opting to make the class easy and breezy so they get nice course evaluations and can fill up their class next semester. Movies such as the house bunny can also reinforce the idea that doing minimal work in college is the all you need to be successful. It drags down the quality of everything a degree is supposed to mean. Grade inflation has a negative effect on college students and devalues the worth of a college degree.

REAL COSTS OF NOMINAL GRADE INFLATION? NEW EVIDENCE FROM STUDENT COURSE EVALUATIONS." (Article, 2010) [UNC Charlotte Libraries]
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1465-7295.2009.00245.x/full - Philip Babcock

(Kay, J. F. (2012), Grade Inflation: Academic Standards in Higher Education – Edited by Lester H. Hunt. Teaching Theology & Religion, 15: 88–89. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9647.2011.00768.x)
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.librarylink.uncc.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1467-9647.2011.00768.x/full - James F. Kay