<p>Are College Students Getting the Grades They Deserve?
By Amanda Lowe
Students at Boston University complain of grade deflation</p>
<p>College students work hard assuming that they will get the grade they deserve but this is not always the case.</p>
<p>Caroline Boulanger, a sophomore business administration and management major at Boston University studies hard. In her freshmen economics class, her final grade was based on three exams. She received two "A's" and an "A-" on these exams. However, at the end of the semester, she ended up with a final grade of a "B-." She tried contacting her professor and he has still not gotten back to her, so she assumes her grade was deflated. Boulanger is not the only person who has had this problem as a result of the grading policy of Boston University.</p>
<p>Ive heard that getting a 4.0 at this school is about as likely as winning the lottery or getting struck by lightening. It could be considered an act of god, said Haley Goucher, a freshman premed student at Boston University.</p>
<p>If a student does receive a 4.0 at Boston University they are in the minority. In a survey of 100 Boston University students, only 23% received an "A" in any one of their classes and 0% of the students had a GPA of 4.0. </p>
<p>Many of these students expressed that this sudden decline of grades made them lose confidence in their work and themselves.</p>
<p>People who did well in high school have trouble transitioning sometimes. They work hard and they still feel stupid, said Alex Corhan, a sophomore journalism major at Boston University.</p>
<p>There is no formal grading policy at Boston University but the university does give several guidelines for professors to follow.</p>
<p>Dont be a grade-inflater! Grades should reflect the distribution of effort and success in the class
If your distribution of grades is skewed toward the high end, it might imply that either an 'A' does not require a high level of achievement in the course or you are demanding too little of your students, the Boston University College of Arts and Sciences Information for Faculty Instructors states.</p>
<p>Not only does Boston University strongly discourage grade inflation, but they evaluate their professors by how high they grade their students. This leads to problems for both professors and students.</p>
<p>The individual colleges monitor the grade distribution of courses and let instructors know if their grades seem to be considerably higher or lower than the norm. If an instructors grades continue to be way out of line, punitive action may be taken: non-tenure track faculty member or switching the instructor for a course, said Alan Marscher, the academic director of Boston Universitys Center for Excellence in Teaching.</p>
<p>This can cause some professors to alter their ways of grading for self-preservation. </p>
<p>In most of my classes, the average is a C and if the professors dont keep this as the class average, they get in huge trouble, said Dawn Turner, a Biochemistry and Molecular Biology major at Boston University. My writing professor said, If the average is anything above a B- the dean of the English department will actuallymake me give him A papers and he will grade them. If he finds any mechanical errors or just errors in general, I get a bad report. I hate doing it to you guys, but I have to protect myself too. </p>
<p>Not only do the students disapprove of this but the professors do also. </p>
<p>My economics professors told us that he was in trouble for not grading us down. He said Well, I have been accused of grade inflation for giving you guys the grades that you have earned. The administration is claiming that I am not grading low enough, Goucher said.</p>
<p>Many of the professors at Boston University feel the same way and are trying to not give into the demands of the administration.</p>
<p>My environmental science teaching assistant told us that the department is
pressuring the professors to grade on a more difficult scale but they do not want to conform to it so this year they are trying to do something about it, said Denise Krall, a sophomore public relations major at Boston University.</p>
<p>Another issue with the grading policy at Boston University is the fact that students are graded on a curve. This means that an average grade is set for the class and that a certain number of students receive each letter grade.</p>
<p>Another thing they do to keep the average down is setting a standard for the class or grade on a curve. This many people will get As, this many Bs, etcetera. From what I have experienced, this generally ends up with 2-5 As, 15-30 Bs, 40-60 Cs, 15-30 Ds, and 2-5 Fs per class, Turner said.</p>
<p>Other students faced similar issues with preset grades in their classes.</p>
<p>Last winter break, I received a letter from the School of Management at Boston University stating that the average grade for each class must be a B-. However, in my experiences here I have found that the class average of my classes has been a C+, Boulanger said.</p>
<p>These issues all stem from the grade inflation problems that Boston University had a couple of years ago.</p>
<p>Boston University, about three or four years ago, realized that grade inflation was a long term and somewhat growing problem, and began doing careful statistical analysis of each professor and course, emphasizing that grading was becoming far too permissive, said Dr. John Schulz, the Dean of the College of Communication at Boston University. As a professor here, I was present when we were told, as part of faculty meetings, that grade inflation mattered. For the past three years, each professor has been given a statistical breakdown of how they grade in comparison to their department and the college and are evaluated, in part, on basis of whether they
are grading too high.</p>
<p>There are other factors that encourage the university to follow this policy. Boston University is ranked 64th in Americas Best Colleges 2004, a research-based study conducted by US News and World Report. However, in the same study conducted in 1995 Boston University was ranked 76th. The ranking is mostly based on student performance. The US News and World Report webpage states, A school's rank indicates where it sits among its peers in the 2004 ranking of colleges and universities published by U.S. News at <a href="http://www.usnews.com%5B/url%5D">www.usnews.com</a> and in its annual guide to America's Best Colleges. The schools are rated by receiving scores in certain categories. Scores for each measure are weighted as follows: Peer assessment 25%, Grading Difficulty 25%, Faculty resources 20%, Graduation and Retention Rate 15%, Student Selectivity 10%, Financial Resources 10%, and Alumni Assessment 5%. The difference in ranks shows the difference in difficulty of grading at Boston University throughout the years.</p>
<p>The rankings in this study are based on the difficulty of the school. However,
student performance is also factored in. The grades students receive say a lot about a university. If a large amount of students are receiving As this indicates that the university is not challenging enough, and perhaps not giving a student his moneys worth of education, said Charles Kenna, a former board member for the US News and World Reports study on Americas Best Colleges. This is another reason the why Boston University implemented their new grading policy.</p>
<p>I do not really know why there is a new policy of this sort. I do know that Boston University suffered from a grade inflation problem years ago and was suffering in their college rankings. Being cautious of not grading too high could be a solution to this issue, said a Boston University professor who wishes to remain anonymous. Grade inflation is not a problem at all universities. Northeastern Universitys policy is much different than Boston University.</p>
<p>I checked the Student Handbook, which has sections on how to dispute a grade, but nothing on the kind of grades or how grades should be assigned in a course. I also checked the Faculty Handbook and could not find anything specific to grade expectations, Mal Hill, Vice Provost of Education at Northeastern University said. Professors at Northeastern University strongly disagree with the policy at Boston University.</p>
<p>[The Boston University grading policy] Sounds like a policy designed to make strong students angry. Why shouldnt students in tough classes get mostly As and Bs if they all demonstratelearning that meets high expectations? Hill asked. The professors at Northeastern University not only believe that grade inflation is unfair, but they are willing to take part of the blame for students poor performance in class. </p>
<p>If my professors see grades concentrated in the C- or D range, they will find a way to compensate because they realize their exams were too tough, said Kyle Leonard, a biology major at Northeastern University.
Not only do professors at Northeastern disagree with the deflation of grades but alumni of Boston University do as well.</p>
<p>I believe that Boston University caused me to experience a severe bout of depression. Going from a B+/A- student to a C level student for no apparent reason or with no apparent avenue of help would do that to some people, me included, said Kenneth Breckard, an alumnus of Boston University.</p>
<p>Overall, students and professors feel that the grading policy at Boston University is unfair and is taking away from the merit of students knowledge and hard work. They believe that if a student studies hard, they can expect to get the grade they deserve.</p>
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