Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (June 7, 2002)
Grading continued from page 1A the highest number of students this spring — including English, history, journalism and economics — are handing out more A’s and fewer B’s and C’s than they have in the past seven years. At the same time, grades in ma jor departments such as psychology and mathematics have remained fairly constant. The Office of the Registrar only computes statistical reports of grade point averages for fall term of each year. Registrar Herb Chereck said the improvement in grades could be happening because the University is “admitting brighter students” or because — he hopes — students are studying more. “Many faculty members are afraid to give appropriate grades, since they fear it would puttheirstudentsata competitive disadvantage and lower their own teaching evaluations. ” Richard Kamber philosophy professor, College of New Jersey Chereck added that the number of petitions from students wanting to change from a graded option in a class to the pass/no pass option has remained consistent through out each school year. Buch speculated that grade in flation may be occurring because incoming freshmen have stronger GPAs and test scores than they did five years ago. He also suggested grade inflation could be occurring in high schools, even before students come to the University. “I don’t think there is a simple single answer,” Buch said. History of grade inflation Nationwide, more than 30 per cent of 30,000 college freshmen studied in 1996 reported a high school grade average of A- or above, compared with 22 percent a decade earlier, according to a UCLA study. Grade inflation has been affect ing colleges and universities both locally and nationwide since the 1960s, College of New Jersey phi losophy Professor Richard Kamber said. Kamber, in an e-mail inter view, said many colleges and uni versities have failed to maintain consistent grading standards. “As a result, grades have be come cheapened in the eyes of graduate schools, professional schools and employers,” he said. “Many faculty members are afraid to give appropriate grades, since they fear it would put their students at a competitive disad vantage and lower their own teaching evaluations.” Kamber said institutions that try to excuse grade inflation by saying their students are better or are working harder “miss the point.” He added that an A at Harvard University will always carry more weight than an A at a school like the University. “If grades are to have any coher ent meaning, they need to represent a relative degree of success in meet ing or surpassing the requirements of courses at a particular college or university,” Kamber said. Solutions to the problem A recent American Academy of Art and Sciences report endorsed a number of conventional sugges tions for dealing with grade infla tion at the institutional level, such as sharing grade distribution data within departments and schools, establishing curves for large class es and including mean class grades on transcripts. Currently at the University, grade statistics are compiled by the Office of the Registrar, but those statistics are not examined at a total school level. Some de partments such as English evalu ate grade inflation and grade pat terns, but others such as the Department of History don’t con sider it a major concern. The process is not uniform from one major subject to the next. John Gage, professor and head of the Department of English, sqid he and his staff haven’t found a defin itive answer in the three years they have studied the grade inflation phenomenon. Une issue tor us is that many of our sections are taught by grad uate teaching fellows who find it harder to give tougher grades,” Gage said. But the steps the English depart ment has taken to remedy the problem don’t include trying to impose certain quotas on faculty grades, he said. Instead, the depart ment anonymously distributes stu dent grades to all faculty members so they can compare their grades to others’. Daniel Pope, head of the Depart ment of History, said his depart ment has never done anything col lectively to evaluate grade inflation. “We have the realization that different people have different grading standards,” he said. Pope, who has been teaching at the University since 1975, said he isn’t convinced that there has been a big change in the number of A’s being given over the past five years at the University. “I’m not all that convinced it’s an acute, current problem,” he said. He said more students exceed in specific courses because they are taking subjects they chose to study such as African American History. Buch said grade inflation makes a difference when it comes to who receives scholarships and who doesn’t. Grades also help to deter mine whether degrees are award ed, or if a student is accepted to medical or law school. However, outside of the col lege environment, he said, GPAs don’t carry that much weight for everyone. “But five or two years after grad uation, does it really make a differ ence if you had a (GPA of) 3.1 or a 3.32?” he said. E-mail features reporter Lisa Toth at lisatoth@dailyemerald.com. You can read the Emerald from anywhere in the world. ODE on the world wide web: www.dailyemerald.com No matter how far you travel, you're always close to campus. Before you move, don't forget to stop your water and electric service. It's quick and easy to stop your service on the web at www.eweb.org, or by calling 484 6016. Once you've placed your order, well come out and read your meter right away. Have a great summer! www.eweb.org WCRI\ xl/ '!<' -vJL^ viz ^ >1/ \i/ \*/ \i/ \i/ ’fc*/ v‘✓ > l ✓ \>/ v‘/ v‘/ \»/ \‘/ viy ^T' -4' 'i' * '7' '7' 4'~ T" 4~ 4 4'~ T 4 4 4 T" 4~ T 4~ 4'~ 4~ 4 vl> Customer Service / Sales 50+ Years in Business No Experience Necessary, Training Provided $13-1450 Base-Appt. (Depending on location) Flexible Hours, FT & PT Openings Available Some Internships & Scholarships Available Conditions Apply No Door to Door or Telephone Sales Fun Work Environment - All Majors May Apply vk APPLY NOW f€P WCPP STARTING AllI P FINALS Seattle. %1-T Tacoma. Everett. Kent/Fed. Way. Wenatchee. Olympia. Beaverton. '!' Bend. (206)362-1751 (253) 983-0170 (425) 438-8878 (253) 840-0109 (509) 662-5435 (360) 236-0944 (503) 892-5737 (541) 382-4555 Yakima.(509) 469-3520 Bellevue.(425) 883-3189 Kitsap Co.(360) 692-7550 Bellingham.(360) 756-1911 Vancouver.(360) 573-1868 Portland.(503) 771-9931 Eugene.(541) 302-3042 www.MI t KlC rSf llCleill Vcom 014203 Black & white and READ •>- all over campus.
