UNC grades on the rise

There’s no question that grades mean a lot to students.

They signify achievement and understanding, and they can substantially influence a student’s future.

They also mean a lot to universities. They are the fundamental mark of education that gets to the heart of learning, the role of a university and how to judge student effort.

And that’s why there is a lot at stake in today’s Faculty Council discussion.

In the wake of a report released in April that found that grades at UNC have been increasing, the faculty will address two fundamental questions: Is there a problem with the way UNC faculty members grade? And, if it is a problem, is there something that can be done to address it?

“It’s time we put this front-and-center in faculty members’ minds,” said Andrew Perrin, a sociology professor and chairman of the committee that wrote the grading report.

At the end of the meeting, faculty members will vote on whether to investigate policy options to address grading, a decision that could have profound implications for students, faculty members and the University’s future.

Grading practices at UNC

The numbers are striking. So striking that many people don’t believe them.

Within two waves — one occurring in the 1970s and one occurring now — the average GPA at UNC has risen almost a full point. In 1967, the average GPA was a 2.49. Last fall, it was a 3.21.

That trend has made it difficult to distinguish between students’ abilities. The grade most frequently given out at UNC is an A, and 82 percent of all grades are either A’s or B’s.

The increase has not occurred across the board either. The average GPA in the math department last fall was a 2.62. The average GPA in the School of Education was a 3.72.

Natural science and math classes give out lower grades on average than the fine arts and humanities. Most professional schools award higher grades than the College of Arts and Sciences.

Professors have expressed concern that this imbalance has driven students to take courses and majors that give out high grades more frequently.

There is also the issue of whether students are getting smarter, something the report was not able to address. The average incoming SAT score has risen from 1090 in 1976 to 1302 this fall.

But some have said that even an increase in student intelligence is not a reason for grades to go up.

“The point is to teach stuff. It’s not about reaching a fixed bar,” Perrin said. “It’s not at all obvious that the right decision would be to raise grades as higher quality students come in.”

‘The power tools’

If the Council determines that there is a problem with grading at UNC, faculty members could move to change policy.

“This is not a hopeless situation,” said Stuart Rojstaczer, a retired Duke University professor who follows grading trends closely. “Overcoming grade inflation can be done, has been done and should be done nationwide.”

UNC professors and students seem opposed to any system that rations grades, including quotas like those implemented at Princeton University and mandatory departmental averages like at Wellesley College.

“My old boss called these the power tools. It’s amputation for a small injury,” Perrin said. “But it does have the advantage that it is very transparent, and it’s easy to explain to the outside community.”

A quota system or curve would also go against UNC’s stated grading policy, which rewards an individual student’s mastery of a subject regardless of his or her peers.

The other path is for the school to retain current grading practices and attempt to use other methods to mitigate grade inflation. These methods include adding more information like grade distributions to transcripts or using a statistical model to factor out variables.

The University already had that talk two years ago, when the Faculty Council rejected the Achievement Index by a close vote of 31-34.

The Index, a “strength of schedule” analysis, measures student performance against their classmates’ grades in other courses.

Students and faculty members objected then, saying the system was too complicated and would encourage competition.

But some in academia who have followed grade inflation talks closely said faculty can’t make the change on their own.

“From the top down, leadership has to send a clear signal that they are concerned about education. They need to do this by telling faculty that they want to make an A meaningful again,” Rojstaczer said.

“If the leadership makes this clear, the faculty tend to respond and to recalibrate their grades. We cannot expect the faculty to reinvigorate the classroom on their own.”



Staff writer Courtney Tye contributed reporting.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.