One doesn’t have to be around college students long before hearing them complain about grades, however at many universities, the average GPA is going up, but the complaining isn’t going down.
Professor Scott Paine thinks students ‘frequently confuse the level of effort with the quality of work.’
The UT professor thinks college students’ increasing sense of entitlement has been caused by elementary and secondary schools rewarding students for effort.
Marshall Grossman, University of Maryland professor agrees.He expects complaints every time he hands back graded papers.
‘Many students come in with the conviction that they’ve worked hard and deserve a higher mark,’ Marshall Grossman said.
UT students are no different and they agree effort should be considered as a component of grading.
‘I think when a student has obviously put in a great deal of effort into a project and maybe misses the mark a little bit, they should not be penalized because of the fact that they didn’t hit the target dead on,’ said Michele Agee, a UT undergraduate.
A recent study at the University of California shows a third of students surveyed expect to get B’s for just attending lectures or completing the required reading.
On the contrary, students at UT think in order to get a good grade they have to apply the knowledge acquired through lectures and textbooks.
‘Reading and attending class is only half of the learning process,’ said Mackenzie Matena, a UT undergraduate.
UT students say they expect to get C’s for only completing the course requirements.
Jonathan Olinto, a UT graduate student, said ‘The majority of students look for the easiest possible way of achieving the highest possible grade.’
Perhaps, there are other phenomena that contribute to the shift in students’ expectations of college and in particular their anxiety over achieving high grades.
Factors to consider may be parental pressure or competition among peers.
‘I always feel like professors and instructors purposely put me in competition with my peers, which doesn’t always make the learning atmosphere comfortable, like it should be,’ Agee said. ‘After all it’s about learning, and not who is better.’
However, other students prefer the competition.
‘I like to see what other people have accomplished in order to get new ideas and standards for myself,’ said undergraduate Kathleen Wilczewski.
Other students feel not so much parental pressure rather obligation.
‘My parents pay for my education, and I would like them to see the results of the money they are spending,’ said Matena.
University of North Carolina professor, Donna Gilleski, spent weeks analyzing more than one million grades dating back to 2000.
She found out that the average undergraduate grade-point average had increased steadily from 2.98 in 1995 to 3.2 in 2007.
‘I want to make sure that when someone graduates from the University of North Carolina, employees know they are hiring someone with a degree of real value,’ said UNC President Erskine Bowles.
Grade inflation is not new. In 1894, a Harvard University committee reported that A’s and B’s were given out ‘too readily.’
Paine, who teaches communication and political science classes, said that another explanation for grade inflation is that it is not in the professor’s interest to be tough.
‘Professors give out higher grades for better course evaluations,’ he said.
However, many students say they favor courses that challenge them.
‘I love when a teacher knows that my work is going to be consistently above average. The pressure to complete assignments to my maximum potential lies in the teacher’s reaction,’ Matena said.
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