Washington Week: Student Voices (O)

High fall GPA average at U. Missouri brings talk of grade inflation
By Tina Marie Macias
The Maneater (U. Missouri)
02/21/2006

(U-WIRE) COLUMBIA, Mo. — When University of Missouri education professor Brendan Maxcy took over a Teaching Development Program course last year, he said his predecessor had created a grading process in which getting lower than an A was nearly impossible. Maxcy has since changed that system, but last semester the 148 students in his Inquiry into Schools, Community and Society II course — a 4000-level course — received 140 A's among them. The remaining eight received B's and C's.

Such high grades were not uncommon last semester among University of Missouri courses, according to a Maneater review of MU course grades released earlier this month.

Last semester, A's and B's accounted for 74.5 percent of grades given in classes with at least 10 students, and the average grade-point average for all such classes — graduate and undergraduate — was nearly 3.1.

The College of Education had the highest average GPA at about 3.67, and the College of Arts and Science had the lowest, at about 2.93.

In addition, the review found that undergraduate grades tend to improve in higher level courses. The average GPA in 1000-level courses was 2.86, compared to 3.04 in 2000-level courses, 3.11 in 3000-level courses and 3.28 in 4000-level courses.

Some professors said students should participate in the grading process and receive high grades regardless of a curve. Others said they keep grades completely objective and argued that students should earn some C's and D's, not just A's and B's.

Education professor Michael Scott said he did not grade on a curve for his Elements of Health Education class, though most of his grading is objective. The result: The course's average GPA last semester was 3.978 with 44 A's and one B.

"I don't think that it's atypical of any other class in the university," Scott said. "I just don't grade students comparatively."

Junior Molly Taylor, who is enrolled in Scott's class, said she does not expect the tests to be difficult because students in the class help write them.

"Students contribute to the test," Scott said. "The course is discussion-based."

Maxcy said students only are allowed to pass his course with high-quality work.

"Students are actually finishing up their portfolios that they'll present for career placement," Maxcy said, "so it was the policy that they were not allowed to finish the course until they finished it with A-quality work. It was graded on mastery of those assignments."

Maxcy said he has since changed the policy, but he still believes the course's purpose is not to be primarily academic.

Other professors, such as Harvey Mansfield, a professor of government at Harvard University and an expert on grade inflation, said fewer students should receive A's.

Mansfield said the pervasiveness of high marks makes it harder for employers to judge the quality of a student's work.

"It's unfair to the best students that they should be lumped with others who haven't really done as well," he said.

Mansfield said universities should move back to having courses with C averages.

MU geography professor Mark Cowell said his students' grades should vary and that "traditionally, C is the average grade."

"It should be more frequent than A's or B's," he said.

Cowell taught an Introduction to Physical Geography course last semester, and the average GPA in the course was 2.018 — four A's, 10 B's, 15 C's, three D's and seven F's.

He also said that grades usually are higher in his upper-level classes — a trend reflected across undergraduate courses at MU.

"Students in the upper-level classes are more interested in the subject matter and find it more relevant, so they do better on exams," Cowell said.

[ Back to Student Voices ]