Grading is the part of teaching I dislike the most.  Classroom time, office hours, even pre-class preparation are all preferable to grading papers and essays.

I assign weekly papers or case analyses in most of my classes. I’ve learned it is about the only sure way to ensure students read the assigned chapters or articles — and read with purpose. That translates into few hours of grading papers on Sunday nights, trying to make distinctions worthy of a Olympics judge. (Was one student’s double salchow equivalent in difficulty and grace to another students triple toe loop?)  By the 45th paper, it’s certainly tempting to just give everyone an A and be done with it.

My university watches the average grade by individual teacher, by college or department, by level, even by type of professor (adjunct vs. tenured).  The figures for individual schools are guarded, but the fact that grade point averages are slowly ‘inflating’ for most colleges and universities is widely acknowledged.

The average GPA for U.S. colleges for the 2006-2007 academic year was 3.11.  In the 1930s, the average GPA at American colleges and universities was only 2.35.

The upward trend in grades has not been smooth. Instead it has gone in fits and starts over the years. The chart above tracks grades from over 160 colleges and universities in the United States with a combined enrollment of over 2,000,000 students.  The authors observe there have been two periods of rapidly rising grades – the 1960’s which correlated with “the social upheavals of the Vietnam war” and the 1980’s. This is thought to be related to the ‘kindness of teachers’ toward students who would otherwise be eligible for the draft.

While the grade inflation of the 60’s ended with a decade of static to falling grades, the inflation of the 80’s has continued with no end in sight. The rise for private schools has been more pronounced than for public universities. The authors note that the same trend is not evident in community colleges.

There are many hypotheses about why grades have inflated, but affirmative action and increases in student achievement have been pretty much ruled out.

“While local increases in student quality may account for part of the grade inflation at some institutions, the national trend cannot be explained by this influence. There is no evidence that students have improved in quality nationwide since the mid-1980s.The influence of affirmative action is sometimes used to explain grade inflation. However, much of the rise in minority enrollments occurred during a time, the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, when grade inflation waned. As a result, it is unlikely that affirmative action has had a significant influence.”

Also not at fault is easier grading on the part of professors (whew!). Instead, the author of the study, Stuart Rojstaczer,  believes that the underlying reason is a pervasive ‘consumer culture’ on campuses.  “Students are paying more for a product every year, and increasingly they want and get the reward of a good grade for their purchase. In this culture, professors are not only compelled to grade easier, but also to water down course content. Both intellectual rigor and grading standards have weakened.”

Although I have yet to hear a student complain about an ‘A’, I also know that students have more respect for professors who demand more of their students.  David Heiser, today wrote a blog article titled, “Take It From a Millennial: Stop Taking It Easy On the Millennials!” where he argues that a softer approach is not what his generation wants or needs:

“We Millennials may be guilty of putting in the least amount of effort we could in order to succeed in school (I know I was guilty at times), but we are NOT fragile. The real problem is that the epidemic of grade inflation that has permeated the education system has made the vast majority of students complacent. If a 3.0 is seen as an acceptable GPA for a student and he only has to work 30 minutes per day to earn it, he’s not likely to do anything more. We need teachers to require kids to put in some serious effort to achieve the minimally acceptable levels. The fact of the matter is that, when it comes down to it, students want to be pushed. If you tell us how we can do better and challenge us to do the best we can, we will.

Ask just about any former student who his favorite college professor was. It won’t be the professor who passed out completed study guides before the tests and didn’t have an attendance policy. It WILL be the professor who challenged him intellectually in the most engaging way. My favorite professors were always the ones who returned my papers with the most red ink on them. I didn’t always love the grades they gave me, but I always appreciated that they took the time to actually read my work closely and showed me how I could do better.”

My 16-year old son has been struggling all week on a history paper. It wasn’t until 2:30 AM until he finished it. To say it has been an ordeal is an understatement, but he is proud of the result.  He is smiling again, and the world looks a little brighter. Despite the pressure he considers his history teacher to be both his hardest and his favorite teacher.  There’s a lesson in that for all of us.