However, much of the rise in minority enrollments occurred during a time, the mid-1970s to mid-1980s, when grade inflation waned. GPAs dropped by 0.05 points in 2005 and As were no longer the most popular grade. 2012 research paper on grading in America, here. I found that grade inflation, while waning beginning in the mid-1970s, resurfaced in the mid-1980s. When you look at a bunch of grades, you say, Gosh Im way at the top end here. That transition occurred two decades earlier than it did at four-year schools. Campbell says that contextual transcripts were discussed again at this summers Council of Deans meeting, but that concerns remain. Where has the fashion of rising grades ended? For those interested in such things, those in the social sciences - like true politicians - tend to grade between the extremes of the humanities and natural sciences. The data presented here come from a variety of sources including administrators, newspapers, campus publications, and internal university documents that were either sent to me or were found through a web search. Faculty attitudes about teaching and grading underwent a profound shift that coincided with the Vietnam War. I can show those changes at most schools in our database. Some schools arent labeled because they cluster together and hug the blue line over the last 15 to 25 years: Brown, DePauw, Hampden-Sydney, Iowa State, Roanoke, Rensselaer, SUNY-Oswego, UC-San Diego, Virginia, West Georgia, and Western Michigan. The consumer era, in contrast, isnt lifting all boats. The observed grade change nationwide in the consumer era is the equivalent of every class of 100 making two B students into B+ students every year and alternating between making one A- student into an A student and one B+ student into an A- student every year. Virginia Commonwealth University; Cal State University-Fullerton; Harvey Mudd College; Reed College; Based on our research, another honorable mention is Wellesley College, who purposely deflated the class averages for 100- and 200-level classes to a 3.33, or B+. A startling amount of GPAs in. It depends on the mandate of university policies. Even so, its difficult to look away from a data and evidence-filed report which says that degree standards have changed that is to say, degraded - because of grade inflation. The data indicate that, at least when it comes to averages, grades have stopped rising at those schools. Purdue University. Ive simply taken every data point Chris has collected, put it in a spreadsheet and plotted averages every five years (smoothed over a five year interval) from 1963 to 2008 and then added 2011 (to plot the most recent data for comparison). By 2013, the average college student had about a 3.15 GPA (see first chart) and forty-five percent of all A-F letter grades were As (see second chart). Despite this limitation, our numbers stay almost exactly the same with every sampling. Individual university grading policies can dramatically affect students' GPAs. Our free guidance platform determines your real college chances using your current profile and provides personalized recommendations for how to improve it. Historical numbers on average percent As in this update are the same as those found in our 2012 paper (which had much more extensive data). In late 2015, at the request of more than a few people, I decided to work with Chris Healy on another update. And theyre up against students from equally prestigious schools who have higher GPAs due to grade inflation. While many universities dont disclose average GPAs, heres a recent sampling for comparison: Emory 3.3, Dartmouth 3.3, Notre Dame 3.4, Harvard 3.4. The 79 percent A and B grades in 2003 in CAS was down slightly from 80 percent in 1998, but well above the 72 percent achieved in 1994. In 2001, Dean Susan Pedersen wrote to the Harvard faculty: "We rely on grades not only to distinguish among our students but also to motivate them and the Educational Policy Committee worries that by narrowing the grade differential between superior and routine work, grade inflation works against the pedagogical mission of the Faculty.While accepting the fact that the quality our students has improved over time, pressure to conform to the grading practices of one's peers, fears of being singled out or rendered unpopular as a 'tough grader,' and pressures from students were all regarded as contributory factors.".