At least one third of all U.S. college students don't get a degree, even six years after they enroll. Earlier research focusing on trends through 1990 found broad declines in college graduation rates, especially among men attending less-selective four-year schools. Since then, however, the picture of college enrollment has changed dramatically,…

This article analyses a number of trends in final exam results at selected German universities. Our research covers 12 prominent fields of study from 1960 to 2010. Data prior to 1997 were collected from eight university archives. The first part of the article descriptively presents long-term stable differences between fields of study as well as…

College completion rates declined from the 1970s to the 1990s. We document that this trend has reversed--since the 1990s, college completion rates have increased. We investigate the reasons for the increase in college graduation rates. Collectively, student characteristics, institutional resources, and institution attended do not explain much of…

This study employs hierarchal linear modeling to examine whether high school grade inflation occurred between 2010 and 2021, including for students who were tested during the pandemic. The study does so while simultaneously accounting for student and school characteristics. This is the first study, to the current authors' knowledge, that makes use…

Research is available on the graduation rates among primarily on-line institutions and traditional universities, but not much on the effect of on-line classes within a university setting. According to Pew Research Center surveys conducted in spring 2011, 89% of four-year public colleges and universities offered online classes, and 46% of recent…

Online education is growing rapidly and there is little doubt that it will continue to expand until it one day encompasses the majority of higher education course offerings. Higher education leaders agree that online education will continue to grow even in the face of a slight recent decline (Allen & Seaman, 2013). As the rise of online…

A number of studies have documented a trend of higher grades awarded by postsecondary institutions in both the United States and Canada over the last two decades. Grade inflation in higher education is a potentially costly problem for a variety of reasons, but little empirical research about the causes of grade inflation has been conducted. This…

There is great interest in understanding the potential of teacher incentives to improve student achievement. In fact, teacher incentives, either individual or collective, may improve student achievement if they succeed in aligning the public or social goals with the goals of the teacher. However, an approach in which reward is based on outputs can…

Among the academic community, there is a perception that there is an upward shift in grade point average over an extended period of time without a corresponding increase in achievement. This trend has become an alarming topic among educators, industry and the general public. Some attribute increases in GPA to improvements in student quality while…

Compared grade inflation rates among students of different abilities at an open-admissions public university by examining trends in graduating grade point average from 1983 to 1996. The higher grade inflation rates among low aptitude students suggest that faculty might be using grades to encourage learning among marginal students. (SLD)

Reviews and extends arguments regarding influences of grades and grading structures on student evaluations of instruction. Original arguments were set forth in the Journal of Economic Education. Concludes that grade inflation will encourage students to perceive their education as inferior and will not result, in the long run, in positive course…

Evidence indicates that college grades have increased on the average and that the college-bound population has decreased in traditional kinds of academic skills, based on observed declines on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the American College Test (ACT). But the relationship between these traditional skills and grades appears not to have…

According to recent research, from Ivy League universities to community colleges only between 10% and 20% of students receive grades lower than a "B-," while the most frequently given grade is an "A." Causes of this grade inflation can be found in students' objections to receiving "D's" and "F's" after paying high tuitions and even the…

A number of factors have contributed to the inflation of grades in higher education, including: the belief that grades traumatize and dehumanize students; the conviction that academic standards are unfair in light of the equality of each individual; teachers' hesitation to fail high-risk or open enrollment students; the influence of popular…

Although much speculation has been devoted to concerns over the existence and degree of grade inflation at the high school level, there exists a lack of current empirical data documenting the extent, if it exists, of this phenomenon. This study was designed to investigate evidence of the existence, persistence, and degree of grade inflation by…