The Achievement Index has re-entered campus debate-but this time not at Duke University.
The AI has made its way across the country to the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where administrators are actively considering whether to participate in a study that would permit a committee at Duke to test the AI on Wisconsin students. As part of the study, committee members would evaluate the performance of a large sample of Wisconsin students, calculate their theoretical Achievement Indexes based on their classes and grade point averages and return the data to Wisconsin, where administrators there could examine the results.
Architect of the AI Val Johnson, associate professor of statistics at Duke, invited 15 institutions nationwide to participate in the study at the end of August. He said that so far, Wisconsin has been the most receptive to participating in the study, but declined to cite the other institutions that have yet to agreed to the study.
The AI-a proposed method for ranking students within a course relative to others in their class-was a heavily debated topic last year among both faculty and students and failed to pass the vote of the Arts and Sciences Council in March.
The ultimate intention of the study that could involve Wisconsin, however, is not to persuade other institutions to adopt versions of the Achievement Index, but rather to examine the factors that motivate students to make specific course selections and to investigate the ways course level and grades affect teaching and learning.
In conducting the study, the committee has asked participating schools to provide information on the grades and curriculum of a significant portion of their students. From that information it will calculate each student's hypothetical Achievement Index and at the same time garner additional data for the study.
"[Wisconsin] is concerned with the things we were-that the current system penalizes students who take challenging courses," Johnson explained. "But the study is going beyond the AI. Its primary goal is not to push adjusted GPAs on schools; it's to see if the availability of course information affects the courses that a student chooses to take."
In beginning to discuss participation in the study, the education committee at Wisconsin is assessing the disadvantages of giving its consent, although administrators express few reservations.
"To be honest, I really can't think of one drawback to participating, unless it's very costly," said John Wiley, provost of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. "A lot of us have been aware of the drawbacks of the GPA, but beyond that, we have to remember that the GPA is only one number, and there's no way that one number can give an adequate picture of a student's achievements. Having an additional indicator is bound to be useful as long as it's meaningful."
Most educators seem to agree that their overall goal is to encourage students to choose their classes based on course content rather than difficulty level. The theory driving this goal-and one that has been a nationwide concern-is that students are afraid to take difficult courses because their GPAs will suffer more than those of students who choose to enroll in less demanding courses. Administrators are looking for a way to combat that problem.
"They're looking for ways to encourage students to take classes for their content and the knowledge value of the class, rather than because it's easier," Johnson explained.
Newspapers at Wisconsin have already turned their attention to the topic that many are confident will arouse interest from all sectors of the university's community. A headline in The Daily Cardinal, a Madison community newspaper read, "UW-Madison eyes new Duke system to curb grade inflation."
The article reported that "Duke University has invited UW-Madison to send the first semester grades of this year to Duke, where they will analyze the grades via a computer program and give them an AI value."
Wisconsin officials emphasized, however, that opting to participate and potentially adopt the Achievement Index are two independent decisions-with the latter will requiring much more discussion than the former. Wiley envisioned involving the entire university community, including students, in their ultimate decision.
The discussion has only recently begun to trickle down to the students, and most are wholly unaware of the implications of adopting the grading mechanism. Justin Planasch of the Associated Students of Madison said that the AI at this stage is too conceptual for students to take an interest.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.