Worried about keeping up your A average? At Ithaca College, A's have gradually increased over the years. In fact, A's have dominated as the most popular mark on the grading scale over the last five years -- a significant change from 10 and 20 years ago. Colleges and universities across the country have attempted to tackle the grade inflation issue by understanding why A's and B's have increased, while C's have dropped, and D's and F's are all but non-existent. At Ithaca College, A's have risen in popularity by 13 percent since 1980, while all other letter grades have decreased.

Click to enlarge

Following a fall 1998 Faculty Development Committee panel discussion that focused on the issue, some professors began to question if the college was giving out too many A's, said Professor and Chairman Michael Twomey, English. Last semester, Faculty Council created a subcommittee to study grade inflation.

"We want to put the finger on the pulse of the college to see whether this is really something people care about," said Twomey, who is organizing the committee.

While some at the college have expressed concern, others have dismissed the issue. However, the question remains: Are today's students smarter than those 20 years ago? 'Gentleman's C' disappears

Based on the registrar's grade statistics, it is apparent that grading has vastly changed over the years. Beginning in the 1990s, grades jumped, resulting in more A's and fewer C's.

"The old 'gentleman's C' as they used to call it in the 1950s doesn't exist anymore," Registrar John Stanton said. "It's now a 'gentleman's B+.'"

Junior Allison Lieberman, a physical therapy major, has heard Faculty Council's presentations on the topic because of her role as a Student Government Association representative.

"Personally I have been challenged, but I feel that the bell curve isn't on a C, I think it's more in the B range," she said. "I don't think it's a bad thing necessarily."

Professor Harold Emery, history, expressed dismay about the upward turn grades have taken.

"The most common grade at an institution cannot really be an honest A. It cannot," Emery said. "Grades are supposed to cover a spectrum. In theory, the bulk should be somewhere in the middle and they would peter out on the top end and bottom end. We just bulge on the top end."

Associate Professor Marty Brownstein, politics, said he rarely gives C's to his students.

He views grades primarily as a way to motivate students.

"I've chosen, in a pretty conscious way, to use the upper half of the curve," Brownstein said. "I don't give too many C's out. That's my choice and it has always been my choice.

"The quality of motivation doesn't change very much by what fraction of the grading curve you use, as long as you're using a range of discreet points. It's equally valid, from my perspective, that somebody use the lower half of the curve or that somebody use the full curve or upper half of the curve, as long as what you're getting is a differential, so the better students know they're better and the worse students know they're worse." Inflation: the wrong label

Clifford Adelman, a senior research analyst with the U.S. Education Department, said he is skeptical of the term "grade inflation."

He cautioned the use of the phrase, noting that the anecdotal evidence, such as an increase in smarter students, provides no evidence for grade inflation.

"In the matter of grades, it's impossible to judge inflation," Adelman said.

He said people often misunderstand the definition of inflation and therefore cite it as a reason for changes in grading.

"You buy a gallon of gasoline," he explained. "You bought a gallon a year ago for a $1.10 and it's now a $1.50. It's the same gallon of gasoline; you can test it. But now you're paying more for it. That's inflation."

Because of the changes that have taken place in higher education over the past 20 years, there is no constant to serve as a basis of comparison, he said.

"For every class in which it is claimed that the grades have risen, I will need to prove that there has been inflation," Adelman said. "I want the same assignments, with the same criteria, with the same people judging them over 30 years. Do you think that's possible?"

He said because grade inflation cannot be judged, the only other factor that can be weighed is shifting in grade distribution, which "doesn't mean much." Inflationary causes

The reasons for grade inflation are not easy to pinpoint.

"You have to be very careful when you deal with [grade inflation] because it's not a cut-and-dry issue," Stanton said.

He said there are infinite reasons why grades have improved.

For example, Brownstein admitted to"grade creep."

"There's no question that there is some quality of grade creep," he said. "I'm probably one of the grade creepers. I do think about it seriously and often wonder how much of a problem it is. Most of the time the answer is: not much."

Also, grades are important to students going on to graduate school directly after their senior year, Stanton said. For students from different schools to compete, their averages must be comparable. However, for students not going on to graduate school, grades are hardly an issue, he said.

Stanton, who has worked at the college for 26 years, said the increase in A's might have nothing to do with grade inflation and could reflect a better-qualified and better-educated student body. He said, however, there is no way of telling if students now are smarter than those in 1980.

"I like to think, to some degree, that we have a better-prepared student body than we had 20 years ago. I think we have a better faculty than we had 20 years ago.

"But that isn't the whole issue. That's not strong enough. There's no backing to that. Yes, our SAT scores are better than they were 20 years ago on average, but are they that much better? I don't think so."

Some professors said the introduction of student evaluations in the 1970s and 1980s resulted in higher grades, while others said the unsigned evaluations carry little weight in their grading.

Emery, a 37-year history department veteran, witnessed first-hand the implementation of evaluations.

"If you want good evaluations, you give high grades," he said.

When asked if this was a factor in his grading method, he said: "I don't always read their evaluations. But I have a reputation of being a hard grader."

Stanton said when evaluations were introduced, many faculty members expressed concern about their influence.

He recalled, "Many of them said, 'This is going to impact our grading, this going to impact our employment.'"

This was particularly true for junior faculty worried about tenure, Stanton said.

"I don't like the idea of [student evaluations] hanging over people's heads as a hammer for employment," he said. "That's why some faculty have had to give better grades -- because they couldn't afford bad evaluations."

Stanton stressed, however, that only faculty members can stop inflation from taking place.

"Grade inflation is an issue with faculty, by faculty, and they're the only ones who can solve the problem," Stanton said.