The media has recently exposed that grade inflation is a concern for higher education in North America. Grade inflation may be due to consumerism by universities that now compete for students. Keeping students happy (and paying) may have been emphasized more than learning. We review the literature on faculty evaluation and present a model that…

This paper examines some prominent criticisms of higher education and contends that systems theory is a means of understanding the nature of the problems by taking into account the complexity of interconnections among several factors. Problems discussed include: (1) inflated grades awarded to today's university students do not reflect their true…

Collaborative research in nursing is discussed in five papers from the 1983 conference of the Southern Council on Collegiate Education for Nursing. Also included are 32 abstracts of nursing research, focusing on clinical practice, as well as nursing education and research models. Paper titles and authors are as follows: "Building a Climate…

The purpose of this article is to deal with the following issues as they relate to educational grading policy: (1) to examine the use and misuse of grades in education; (2) to explore the use of performance based grading versus traditional grading and compare institutions using traditional grading versus those using performance based or…

British Commonwealth universities inherited the class system for classifying degrees. However, increasing global marketization has brought with it increasing demands for student exchanges, particularly with universities in North America. Hence, Commonwealth universities are considering adopting grade point averages (GPAs) for degree classification…

The possible existence of grade inflation at the Indiana University at South Bend was examined in this research study, along with possible differences in grades received between the divisions of Education and Arts and Sciences. Questions raised by the Division of Education Ad Hoc Committee on Standards at IUSB prompted the study. The sample…

The annual report on the state of education notes that after the shock of September 11, came a renewed sense of patriotism among young people. Charts and graphs display test results of the civic knowledge of U.S. 9th graders, scores from 4th-grade reading tests, 4th-, 8th-, and 12th grade math tests, and SAT scores Other items include…

The broad and highly politicized debate about the causes of rising illiteracy in the nation fall into three categories: nurture, or inadequate elementary/secondary educational institutions; nature, or arguments about genetics and the unteachability of Blacks and other minority groups; and social science, or the idea that standard literacy tests…

John J. Cannell's late 1980s "Lake Wobegon" reports suggested widespread deliberate educator manipulation of norm-referenced standardized test (NRT) administrations and results, resulting in artificial test score gains. The Cannell studies have been referenced in education research since, but as evidence that high stakes (and not cheating or lax…

Asserts that students see grades as an indicator of effort unconnected to the content of the course while teachers regard grades as a measure of achievement within a discipline. Discusses some of the current controversies and approaches concerning grades and how they relate to school reform. (MJP)

This study was conducted to obtain empirical data to inform policy decisions about exempting incoming students from a first-year composition (FYC) course on the basis of Advanced Placement (AP) English exam scores. It examined the effect of avoiding first-year writing on the writing abilities of sophomore undergraduates. Two three-page writing…

The trends from 1970-75 in course-by-course grading at a large public urban university are described. A total of 144 undergraduate courses were analyzed to determine if systematic grade inflation was occurring. Multiple linear regressions were fitted to more than 125,000 final course grades by courses. Most course grading patterns showed little…

This report presents a taxonomy of precisely what is studied, where, and by whom, in universities, community colleges, and postsecondary trade schools in the United States. It is based on data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72) and the High School and Beyond/Sophomores (HSB/So) survey of high school…

Grade inflation is a serious problem in multisectioned speech communication courses, and one of its principal causes is a desire for positive student evaluations and high enrollments on the part of professors and economically insecure departments (who need the funding generated by high enrollments). Positive student evaluations have been found to…

Kansas State University faculty members and students were asked about factors affecting "grade inflation" as well as consequences of changing academic polices relating to it. Responses were received from 188 faculty members and 369 students. Most faculty members viewed grade inflation negatively, and felt that it was caused by a…