In understanding why A’s are the standard grade in many of my North Campus classes, I have always employed simple physics. As a matter of momentum, wouldn’t good grades in high school simply mean good grades in college?
Little did I know that grade inflation is occurring at a steady rate across the entire country. Community colleges excluded, and with inflation weighing heaviest at private schools, the average GPA has been rising for decades, and, well, we’ve already touched on what momentum can do.
A scattering of universities has employed policies to combat the drift. Not only are the effects of inflation unfavorable, but its occurrence also allows us to return to discussing the imprecise nature of a grade. UCLA should join a budding national effort to integrate a more thorough grading and transcript system, because it will affect success and fair entrance into the post-undergrad world.
So far, schools seem to be adopting policies that either directly act against inflation, like Princeton’s 35 percent cap on the number of undergraduate A’s, or work toward expanding transcript systems, which seems a more germane ““ yet more complicated ““ approach.
I propose a model similar to that of the University of North Carolina. Alongside a grade for each class, information should be listed on a transcript that helps contextualize the meaning of that grade for a reader. It could include the percentage of students that received that grade, or are in that major. A breakdown by class level would be helpful as well, or even a delineation of what comprises an individual grade.
“At this point, there are no policy revisions under consideration, though it is a question that comes up periodically,” said Robin Garrell, immediate past chair of the UCLA Academic Senate.
Garrell noted that though the issue has surfaced, discussion has not reached the necessary campus-wide level.
Such a reform would require a drastic restructuring of our transcript layout, prompted by committees such as the Academic Senate and the Undergraduate Council and implemented by the registrar.
Even if this does not directly address the issue of inflation, it does directly address the problems it creates. It makes more sense to reform our transcripts than to try to slow a force that has long gained speed.
Grades are also not very telling. When one considers differences between types of classes, department goals and even among professors teaching the same course, it is evident that grades can be sorrowfully incomplete depictions of effort.
But GPAs continue to be prominent in professional school applications, and they are among typical questions in interviews for years to follow. The pressure for excelling is not taken lightly.
So, supplementing such subjective yet influential markers with more information will help even the playing field.
Moreover, a comprehensive approach to transcripts will ensure that there are not students arbitrarily receiving C’s, which certainly happens with grade caps. Most importantly, detail will ensure that the problem is not eventually exacerbated, a risk we run if efforts are not streamlined.
For example, if individual teachers concerned over the trend begin to grade more stringently, not only are their students at an initial comparative disadvantage, but the effort also will contribute to inflation over time.
Studies have elucidated the relationship between higher-grading classes and higher enrollment. With sites such as RateMyProfessors.com and Bruinwalk.com, grade distribution is public information that can sway enrolling students.
Professors, of course, want to avoid low enrollment and harsh evaluations, both of which have severe implications. Professors are reducing standards in response, and they are hardly to blame. Having low grades is seen as ineffectual teaching, not harsh grading. No one is being done a service in this cycle.
UCLA has seen a more conservative change in GPA than many other high-end schools. While GPAs at Ivy Leagues have increased by one point, UCLA has had an increase of 0.6 since the late 1950s, according to data compiled by Stuart Rojstaczer, a former professor at Duke University.
But this isn’t because Harvard students today have more A’s than Bruins do ““ only that Harvard professors graded more stingily in the past.
Nevertheless, our less severe increase, alongside an intensive and expensive restructuring process, should not obscure the fact that students everywhere should be given an equal chance.
If transcripts revealed more about a student’s efforts, competing with the overwhelming number of other equally high GPA’s will allow for distinctiveness and will make selection therefore more justifiable.
The hippie collectivist in me says that if there are higher grades ““ and schools and jobs will always value higher grades ““ then let more people have that opportunity. But my liberal individualist voice is louder, and my A’s should represent as much of the hard work behind them as possible.
Like seeing A’s on your transcript? E-mail Moradi at imoradi@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to opinion@media.ucla.edu.