Where a is ordinary: The evolution of american college and university grading, 1940-2009

Teachers College Record

Volumn 114, Issue 7, 2012, Pages

  Rojstaczer, Stuart ^a   Healy, Christopher ^b  

^a DUKE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b FURMAN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84879745976     PISSN: 01614681     EISSN: 14679620     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (60)

1. Adelman, C. (2004). Principal indicators of student academic histories in postsecondary education, 1972-2000. Jessup, MD: ED Pubs. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED483154)
2. Archer, A. F., Hutchings, A. D., & Johnson, B. (1998). A case for stricter grading. UMAP Journal, 19, 299-313.
3. Astin, A. W. (1971). Predicting academic performance in college: Selectivity data for 2300 American colleges. New York: Free Press.
4. Aud, S., Hussar, W., Kena, G., Bianco, K., Frohlich, L., Kemp, J., et al. (2011). Table A-8-2: Actual and projected undergraduate enrollment in degree-granting 4- and 2-year postsecondary institutions, by sex, attendance status, and control of institution: Selected years, fall 1970-2020. In The condition of education 2011: Indicator 8, undergraduate enrollment (p. 172; NCES 2011-033). U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/pdf/coe_hep.pdf
5. Babcock, P. S. (2010). Real costs of nominal grade inflation? New evidence from student course evaluations. Economic Inquiry, 48, 983-996. doi:10.1111/j.1465-7295.2009.00245.x
6. Babcock, P. S., & Marks, M. (2010). The falling time cost of college: Evidence from half a century of time use data (NBER Working Paper No. 15954). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
7. Bar, T. R., Kadiyali, V., & Zussman, A. (2008). Quest for knowledge and pursuit of grades: Information, course selection, and grade inflation at an Ivy League school (Johnson School Research Paper Series No. 13-07). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.
8. Battersby, J. L. (1973). Typical folly: Evaluating student performance in higher education. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED074519)
9. Bayer, A. A. (1996). What is wrong with "customer"? College Teaching, 44, 82.
10. Chace, W. M. (2009). The decline of the English department. American Scholar, 78, 32-42.
11. College Board. (2007). SAT data and reports, Table 2, mean SAT scores of college-bound seniors, 1967-2007. Retrieved from http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/about/ news_info/cbsenior/yr2007/tables/2.pdf
12. DeMarzo, P. M., Fishman, M. J., & Hagerty, K. M. (2005). Self-regulation and government oversight. Review of Economic Studies, 72, 687-706.
13. Dorans, N. (2002). The recentering of SAT® scales and its effects on score distributions and score interpretations (College Board Research Report No. 2002-11). New York: College Entrance Examination Board.
14. Edson, F. G. (1951). Grade distribution in 80 Mid-western liberal arts colleges. School and Society, 73, 312-315.
15. Ehrenberg, R. G. (2002). Tuition rising: Why college costs so much. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
16. Ellis, L., Burke, D. M., Lomire, P., & McCormack, D. R. (2003). Student grades and average ratings of instructional quality: The need for adjustment. Journal of Educational Research, 97, 35-40.
17. Faculty of Haverford College. (1972). Regular meeting, Education Policy Committee, Annex 1, April 20. Haverford College archives, Haverford, PA.
18. Feldman, K. A. (1976). Grades and college students' evaluations of their courses and teachers. Research in Higher Education, 4, 69-111.
19. Finkelmeyer, T. (2010, January 27). Critics say grade inflation at UW-Madison lowers bar for students-and professors. Madison Capital Times. Retrieved from http://host. madison.com/ct/news/local/education/university/article_5adc496e-0ac6-11df-b737- 001cc4c03286.html
20. Frey, B. S. (2006). Giving and receiving awards. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 377-388.
21. Georgia Student Finance Commission. (2011). Georgia's HOPE scholarship program overview. Retrieved from March 17, 2011, from https://secure.gacollege411.org/Financial_Aid_ Planning/HOPE_Program/Georgia_s_HOPE_Scholarship_Program_Overview.aspx
22. Johnson, V. E. (2003). Grade inflation: A crisis in college education. New York: Springer.
23. Juola, A. E. (1976, April). Grade inflation in higher education: What can or should we do? National Council on Measurement in Education annual meeting, San Francisco, CA. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED129917)
24. Juola, A. E. (1980). Grade inflation in higher education-1979. Is it over? East Lansing: Learning and Evaluation Service, Michigan State University. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED189129)
25. Kaplan Test Prep and Admissions. (2010, March 2). Course selection in the rate-my-professors era (Press release). Retrieved from http://press.kaptest.com/category/pressreleases/ company-news
26. Kezim, B., Pariseau, S. E., & Quinn, F.(2005). Is grade inflation related to faculty status?. Journal of Education for Business, 80, 358-363.
27. King, J. E. (2000). Gender equity in higher education: Are male students at a disadvantage?. Washington, DC: American Council of Education.
28. King, J. E. (2010). Gender equity in higher education: 2010. Washington, DC: American Council of Education.
29. Kuh, G. D., Kinzie, J., Schuh, J. H., & Whitt, E. J. (2005). Student success in college: Creating conditions that matter. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
30. Kuh, G. D., & Hu, S. (1999). Unraveling the complexity of the increase in college grades from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 21, 297-320.
31. Kutner, M., Greenberg, E., & Baer, J. (2006). A first look at the literacy of America's Adults in the 21st century (NCES 2006-470). Jessup, MD: U.S. Department of Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED489066)
32. Levine, A., & Cureton, J. S. (1998). When hope and fear collide: A portrait of today's college student. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
33. Mansfield, H. C. (2001, April 6). Grade inflation: It's time to face the facts. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. B24.
34. Marsh, H. W., & Roche, L. A. (1997). Making students' evaluations of teaching effectiveness effective: The critical issues of validity, bias, and utility. American Psychologist, 52, 1187-1197.
35. McCabe, J., & Powell, B. (2004). "In my class? No." Professors' accounts of grade inflation. In W. E. Becker & M. L. Andrews (Eds.), The scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education (pp. 193-220). Bloomington: University of Indiana Press.
36. McSpirit, S. J., & Jones, K. E. (1999). Grade inflation rates among different ability students, controlling for other factors. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 7.
37. McSpirit, S. J., Kopacz, P., Jones, K. E., & Chapman, A. D. (2000). Faculty opinion on grade inflation: Contradictions about its cause. College and University, 75, 19-25.
38. Meyer, M. (1908). The grading of students. Science, 28, 243-250.
39. National Center for Education Statistics. (2005a). Youth indicators 2005: Trends in the wellbeing. Figure 30. Percentage of 16- to 24-year-old college students who were employed, by attendance status and hours worked per week: October 1970 to October 2003. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/youthindicators/Indicators.asp?PubPageNumber=30
40. National Center for Education Statistics. (2005b.) Digest of education statistics, list of tables and figures 2005. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/2005menu_tables.asp
41. National Center for Education Statistics. (2008a.) Table 216. Total fall enrollment in degreegranting institutions, by level of enrollment and state or jurisdiction: 2004, 2005, and 2006. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d08/tables/dt08_216.asp
42. National Center for Education Statistics. (2008b.) Table 204. Enrollment rates of 18- to 24-yearolds in degree-granting institutions, by type of institution and sex and race/ethnicity of student: 1967 through 2007. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d08/tables/ dt08_204.asp
43. National Center for Education Statistics. (2009a). 2006 SAT data for all institutions downloaded from the IPEDS data center. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter
44. National Center for Education Statistics. (2009b). Table 329, Number of applications, admissions, and enrollees; Their distribution across institutions accepting various percentages of applications; and SAT and ACT scores of applicants, by type and control of institution: 2008-09. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/tables/dt09_329.asp
45. National Center for Education Statistics. (2009c). Table 198, Total first-time freshmen fall enrollment in degree-granting institutions, by attendance status, sex of student, and type and control of institution: 1955 through 2008. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/ d09/tables/dt09_198.asp
46. Perrin, N. (1998, October 9). How students at Dartmouth came to deserve better grades. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A68.
47. Perry, W. M. (1943). Are grades and grading systems comparable from institution to institution?. Registrar's Journal, 18, 159-165.
48. Rojstaczer, S., & Healy, C. (2010). Grading in American colleges and universities. Teachers College Record, ID Number 15928.
49. Ryan, J. J., Anderson, J. A., & Birchler, A. B. (1980). Student evaluations: The faculty responds. Research in Higher Education, 12, 317-333.
50. Saenz, V. B., & Barrera, D. S. (2007). Findings from the 2005 College Student Survey (CSS): National Aggregates. Los Angeles: UCLA Higher Education Research Institute.
51. Seldin, P. (1984). Changing practices in faculty evaluation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
52. Seldin, P. (1993, June 12). The use and abuse of student ratings of professors. Chronicle of Higher Education, p. A40.
53. Spiegel, M. R.,& Stephens, L. J. (1998). Schaum's outline of statistics (3rd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
54. Stassen, M. (2001). Non-returning first-year students: Why they leave and where they go. UMass Assessment Bulletin, 4(2), 1-4.
55. Suslow, S. (1976). A report on an interinstitutional survey of undergraduate scholastic grading 1960s to 1970s. Berkeley: Office of Institutional Research, University of California. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED129187)
56. Vars, F. E., & Bowen, W. G. (1998). Scholastic Aptitude Test scores, race, and academic performance in selective colleges and universities. In C. Jencks & M Phillips (Eds.), The Black-White test score gap (pp. 457-479). Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press.
57. Weinberg, S. L. (2007). Grade inflation: An examination at the institutional level. In S. S. Sawilowsky (Ed.), Real data analysis (pp. 315-323). Charlotte, NC: Information Age.
58. Weinberg, B. A., Fleisher, B. M., & Hashimoto, M. (2007). Evaluating methods for evaluating instruction: The case of higher education (National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 12844). Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
59. Woodruff, D. J., & Ziomek, R. L. (2004). High school grade inflation from 1991 To 2003 (ACT Research Report Series, 2004-4). Iowa City, IA: ACT.
60. Zirkel, P. A. (1994). Students as consumers. Phi Delta Kappan, 76, 168-171.