Perfect 4.0 Most Frequent Grade At UW -- So Many Get Top Marks That College Students And Faculty Agree Something Should Be Done

A perfect "4-point" isn't what it used to be at the University of Washington.

In fact, a 4.0 - the highest grade a student can get in a class - is the individual course grade most frequently awarded to UW undergraduates, who are evaluated on a scale that goes in gradations of one-tenth of a point from 0 to 4.0.

And almost 63 percent of all undergraduate grades fall in the highest grading range, 3.1 to 4.0, compared to 48 percent 20 years ago.

Grade inflation has done wonders for overall grade-point averages, too. The average undergraduate GPA has jumped more than 35 percent from an average of 2.31 in 1964 to 3.12 today.

The average GPA is so high now, "It's sort of unthinkable to have it go much higher than it is," said Jan Carline, head of the UW faculty senate council on academic standards.

The council recently concluded an 18-month investigation of grading practices and grade inflation at the university and, along with several other groups on campus, has decided that both need scrutiny.

GPAs reached their current high level about 1987 and leveled off. Whether this rise can be associated with an equivalent rise in student ability is hard to assess, states a report by the UW's Office of Educational Assessment.

But both faculty and students believe the average GPA of 3.12 is too high - although they disagree by how much.

Faculty members said, in a survey, the average GPA ought to be around 2.68. Students surveyed, while saying their own personal grades are deserved, felt the average GPA would be more accurate if it were lower, around 2.84.

The problem is not unique here.

"Grade inflation has been an issue in universities for the last 20 years. Almost any other university or college has seen a slow creeping up of grades," said Carline.

After observing a steady decline in grades lower than an A, for example, Stanford University last fall instituted what was called the most significant overhaul of its grading system in 24 years. Changes included reinstituting use of a failing grade, and limiting students' ability to retake classes for higher grades.

UW surveys last spring show that 90 percent of faculty and a good portion of students think grade inflation is a problem and that discrepancies do exist in grade distributions among disciplines and types of courses.

The report by the Office of Educational Assessment shows that the average grade increases as the level of a course increases, from 3.01 for 100-level courses to 3.66 for graduate classes. The highest grades are awarded in nursing (above 3.71 for all levels), the lowest in mathematics (below 2.98 for all undergraduate levels).

"In interpreting these data, one needs to keep in mind that students in various curricula may differ in ability, and courses may vary in difficulty; i.e., not all differences are the result of different grading standards," according to the report.

UW faculty also said they've had little training in how to assess the quality of a student's learning or work, aren't clear about how their grading philosophies stack up against those of their colleagues and would welcome some help in sorting it all out.

A fair number of students are also unhappy because grading practices are unclear and because they feel getting a high grade doesn't mean anything anymore. High grades often are given for less than stellar work, which "demeans" the value of an excellent grade fairly earned, students say in surveys.

To combat grade inflation, the faculty council is putting together a plan for consideration next academic year.

It recommends providing grade reports back to faculty to make it easier to compare grading practices across courses and the campus and suggesting a mean grade-point average for courses at different levels.

Such guidelines would not be prescriptive, "but would be out there so everyone has in hand what norms might be," according to Carline.

The plan also recommends beginning discussions for restructuring grading practices within departments and making training available to faculty and teaching assistants.

Students leaders also recently passed a resolution asking for further consideration of grading practices. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Grade-point distribution

Grades at the UW are given on a scale that goes in gradations of one-tenth of a point from 0 to 4.0.

In the latest grading report, the most frequently given grade was a 4.0, awarded about 11 percent of the time. Here is the change in grade-point distribution over the past 20 years.

Grade- % of all % of all . point grades grades . range 1976 1995 .

3.6-4.0 26.6 32.9 . . 3.1-3.5 21.4 29.7 . . 2.6-3.0 22.5 18.4 . . 2.1-2.5 11.8 9.1 . . 1.6-2.0 10.3 4.8 . . 1.1-1.5 2.5 2.0 . . 0.7-1.0 2.3 1.2 .

below .7 2.6 1.9 .