Grade Inflation From a Career Counselor's Perspective

✍ Scribed by IK-WHAN G. KWON; NANCY L. KENDIG; MUEUN BAE

• Publisher: American Counseling Association
• Year: 1997
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 289 KB
• Volume: 34
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-0787
• DOI: 10.1002/j.2161-1920.1997.tb00458.x

✦ Synopsis

Many universities and colleges are experiencing increasingly higher grade point averages (GPAs) (Leo. 1993). At Princeton, A' s accounted for 40% of all grades in 1992. up from 33% in 1989. At Harvard in 1992, 91% of undergraduate grades were Bor higher, and the avalanche of A' s is producing a similar avalanche of students graduating with honors. At Stanford University, less than 10% of the students receive anything below a B grade (Reibstein. King, Rosenberg, & Biddle. 1994). Despite apparently high grades, prospective employers complain that college graduates have not adequately prepared for their career challenges (Barton & Lapointe. 1995). A recent survey of 3,OO businesses conducted by the U S . Census Bureau indicated an extraordinary gap between the expectations of schools and those of the workplace (Caster, 1995).

The purpose of this study is to revisit and explore possible reasons for grade inflation, if there are any, by using a tightly controlled sample environment (one academic division within a college) and a multivariate statistical tool.