1. Ilanna Fricks, Emma Murphy, Yana Mayayeva
A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats: Grade Inflation Versus Grade Compression at Colby College
Ilanna Fricks, Emma Murphy, Yana Mayayeva
Abstract
Grade point averages are supposed markers of our collegiate intellectual ability and drive for success. But as an “A” increasingly becomes a stand-in for “average,” the credibility of our GPAs may be in question in the professional world. The goal of this paper is to assess whether grading at Colby College has fallen in line with the national trend toward inflation. Our regression analyses examine whether GPAs have risen at Colby over the past 15 years across a variety of disciplines and indicators such as gender, athlete status, and international student status. This study also considers whether grade compression, rather than grade inflation, may be responsible for the increases in mean GPAs over time. Data for this project came from Colby College’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment. Our findings were consistent with national trends; GPAs have risen in the majority of majors considered. In addition and contrary to our hypothesis about grade compression, the probability of a student earning a GPA in the A range has increased more than the probability of a student earning a GPA in the B+ range.
Data Analysis and Results
Eighteen of the 20 majors saw a marginal increase in mean GPAs from 1998 to Eleven of these increases were statistically significant at the 5 percent level.
The increases in mean GPA occurred most often within the Humanities and Social Sciences.
The average marginal change from 1998 to 2013 in the proportion of B+ GPAs is 11.5 percentage points whereas the average marginal change in the proportion of A GPAs is 15.2 percentage points.
The greatest increases in the proportion of GPAs in the A range were in the Humanities (+18.1 percentage points) and Social Science (+17.2 percentage points) disciplines.
In 2013, females graduated with a higher GPA than males in 16 of the 20 majors studied.
We were unable to draw conclusions regarding athlete and international student status due to a lack of statistical significance, which may be attributed to small sample sizes.
Key Terms
Grade Increase: the rise in grades over time
Grade Inflation: the rise in grades related to students receiving higher grades for work of a similar quality to their predecessors
Grade Compression: decreased variation in grades
Grade Disparity: work of a similar quality being awarded disparate grades depending on the course and the discipline
National Trends
The percentage of A grades given in higher education has increased from 15 to 43 percent since 1960.
Possible explanations for this increase include the implementation of student course evaluations, rising tuition rates, and an institution’s stake in its students attaining quality jobs.
This trend of rising grades is most pronounced at private colleges, those that emphasize the liberal arts, and those that are not in the Southern U.S. Colby College seems to be a prime candidate.
Hypotheses
H0: The mean GPA within a given major has not increased from 1998 to 2013
H0: Students are just as likely to earn a B+ GPA and an A GPA in 2013 as their counterparts were in 1998
H0: GPAs within a given major have not varied by gender between 1998 and 2013
H0: GPAs within a given major have not varied between athletes and non-athletes
between 1998 and 2013
H0: GPAs within a given major have not varied between international students and
non-international students between 1998 and 2013