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Grade Inflation in the Ivory Tower
James Côté and Anton Allahar over at Ivory Tower Blues have published a table showing how grade inflation has become a problem at UWO.
"It can be seen in Table 2 that for 25 years grades were relatively stable in each of the three Faculties, and in two Faculties hovered just above the guidelines presented in Table 1. We provide a note in Table 2 identifying the period during which a policy known as "bums-on-seats funding" was introduced. Since the late 90s, departmental budgets depend on how many students are enrolled in their courses.
"Ten years later, grades are higher in all three faculties, with 10-20% jumps in the As and Bs awarded in first-year courses and 10% jumps in As and Bs awarded overall. Additionally, the three Faculties are converging in their inflated grading distributions. Although other factors may be involved, it is plausible that the Enrollment Contingent Funding policy may have inadvertently affected inflationary pressures by providing an incentive for departments and faculties to compete with each other to attract and retain students."
The authors state that grade inflation is the elephant in the room of post-secondary education. SQE suggests that this has trickled down to the high school level as well.