A recent report argues that a trend toward higher grades at UW-Madison is the result of lowered classroom standards over the past 15 years.
Between 1990 and 2007, UW-Madison students' average grade point average increased by .25 points, making today's average GPA over 3.2, according to a report released by former Duke University professor Stuart Rojstaczer.
Rojstaczer said in his report the increasing costs of attending a public university increase the pressure on faculty to reward students with higher grades. With increases in tuition, he said, professors continue to lower grading standards and simplify class content to ensure students remain satisfied.
Former UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley said he believes an increasingly competitive admission process, not the lowering of classroom standards, explains UW-Madison's grade increases.
""Today we get 25,000 applications, and we can only admit about half of those students,"" Wiley said. ""That means we have to be more selective ... so we've got better prepared and higher performing students than we used to have.""
The 2009 freshman class marked the admission office's most selective year to date, with the average ACT score at 28, the highest ever, according to the UW-Madison 2008-'09 Data Digest.
""I don't think it's right or fair or good public policy to take in basically the top 10 percent of our high schools and then flunk out a bunch of them,"" Wiley said. ""I think it's logical and understandable that students today are getting higher grades.""
According to Rojstaczer, however, competitive admission standards do not explain the higher grades.
""Such quantitative efforts are of dubious worth, because even the organization that administers the SAT test, the College Board, is unable to show that SAT scores are a good predictor of college GPA,"" Rojstaczer said in the report.
Aaron Brower, vice provost for teaching and learning, said he thinks it is clear students' grades continue to increase but the reasons behind the increase are unknown.
""It's hard to know whether grades are going up because students are knowing more or grades are going up because of grade inflation,"" Brower said.
While the reasons behind grade increases continue to be debated, Wiley said the numbers do not trouble him.
""[We could] rack up the difficulty of the homework, the tests and the material,"" Wiley said. ""But is that a good thing to do? Is that our purpose as a public institution? Our purpose is to produce more degrees, not to produce more failures.""
