Grades inflate as standards deflate in high schools, colleges
Modesto Bee 6/27/07
Recently published student surveys indicate standards and expectations at the college level have declined nationwide.
The amount of learning in a college course is supposed to correlate with the units (credit hours) assigned to the course. Traditionally, students have been told that they would have to invest two to three hours out of class for each lecture hour if they expect to learn the material.
There is support of the two- to three-hour standard in print. A regulation of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges states, "The course also requires a minimum of three hours of work per week, including class time, for each unit of credit." In practice, to earn one credit, laboratory courses require three class hours and about one hour preparing and writing reports.
In addition, many college graduates maintain that two to three hours of studying per class hour was necessary to achieve decent grades.
According to survey results, current four-year college students admit to spending an average of about one hour out of class for each hour in class, or less than half of the accepted standard.
Even worse, community college students spend less than an hour studying for each lecture hour. A full-time load of 12 credit hours today involves an average of 24 hours of total engagement.
Analysis of the surveys indicates high school students study an average of 3.2 hours per week. High school students spend considerably more time in class than do college students, but less than half an hour per day of homework does not seem adequate.
Perhaps the lack of study hours in high school is one of the reasons so many students enter college underprepared and must take remedial classes.
High school and college students spend many more hours employed and immersed in high-tech activities (cell phones, iPods, Internet, video games) today than years ago, but this is not a reason for lowering standards.
If the standards had been maintained, this decrease in study hours should have resulted in lower grades for college students. However, many reports indicate the opposite.
For example, the U.S. Census reports that the average number of high school A grades for students entering college has increased from 19.6percent in 1970 to 46.6 percent in 2005. At the college level, there is also strong evidence of grade inflation.
This analysis should promote discussion of some important, closely related questions:
For high schools and colleges, have standards been lowered significantly so that social passing without adequate learning has become the rule rather than the exception?
Does the grade of C still signify competency in a subject matter?
Do high schools and colleges need to seriously evaluate and appropriately adjust standards and expectations?
Data for Modesto Junior College was included in one of the surveys. MJC was slightly above the community college average for study hours, but its students still averaged less than one hour out of class for each hour in class. The insufficient number of study hours undoubtedly contributes to the terrible statistic that one-third of MJC students who enter courses receive grades of D, F or W (withdrawal). For some math and science courses, the failure rate is even higher.
Some MJC faculty assert that the recent change to a compressed calendar has contributed to a decline in the quality and quantity of education. MJC has established a committee to study student learning outcomes, but creating buzzwords such as "student learning outcomes" does not necessarily lead to meaningful results or improvement, and improvement is apparently needed.
Murov is a retired MJC chemistry professor who also has taught at the University of California at Merced.