In a column in The Washington Post this week, Stuart Rojstaczer, associate professor of hydrology, denounced grade inflation as a real and present danger in higher education, and provided a link with data for Duke's average undergraduate grade point average from 1969 to 1999.
The data, which was confidential until obtained by Rojstaczer from a retired associate dean in Trinity College, shows that since 1969, the average Duke student's GPA went from 2.79 to 3.33 - about the difference between a B-minus and a B-plus. Rojstaczer's website also contains data for more than 30 other schools and analysis of the rise of grades over the past 30 years.
Rojstaczer, a columnist for The Chronicle and a visiting scholar at Stanford University, argued in his Post column that colleges, in order to keep parents and students happy, have abandoned low marks.
The data shows that the average GPA shot up in the mid- to late-1980s, climbing from 3.05 in 1985 to 3.25 in 1991.
Rojstaczer wrote that professors can no longer grade honestly because to grade lower than a B-minus in many classes would mean declining enrollments.
"The last time I gave a C was more than two years ago," he wrote. "That was about the time I came to realize that my grading had become anachronistic. The C, once commonly accepted, is now the equivalent of the mark of Cain on a college transcript. I have forsworn C's ever since."
Provost Peter Lange, who recently completed a study of grade inflation at the University, said the numbers Rojstaczer published did not completely correspond, but that the numbers only deviated by a hundredth or two-hundredths of a point.
"We've been doing our own research on the issue of grade increases," Lange said. "I think Stuart's article contributes to a national debate on this issue, which as our own research suggests, we're interested in and concerned with."
Lange, who was supposed to present his findings to the Board of Trustees last December before a winter storm limited the Board's work, will present the report in February instead.
Robert Thompson, dean of Trinity College, said Thursday afternoon that he had not yet read the column and declined further comment.
Lange's report found that grades have remained steady for the past six years, and that the long-term increase may reflect many trends, including the nature of pre-Curriculum 2000 standards and a higher quality of admitted students at Duke - for whom Lange said the average SAT score has increased an average 80 points over the last 20 years. He said in December that, because of the very individual nature of grading, any administrative response to grade inflation would be an advisory, not in a policy, capacity.
Rojstaczer, however, was more skeptical that grade inflation could be explained by a more highly qualified undergraduate body.
"University leaders, like stock market analysts talking about the Internet bubble not so long ago, sometimes come up with ridiculous reasons to explain grade inflation," Rojstaczer wrote. "We are teaching more effectively, some leaders say, or students are smarter and better than in previous decades. Many students and parents believe these explanations. They accept the false flattery as the real thing."
Rojstaczer's data can be found at his website, www.gradeinflation.com.
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