This College Grading Thing...

Over the past few semesters, I've worked with a wide range of college students: the overprepared, the underwhelmed, the "just passing time until something better comes along," the honor rollers, and a plethora of others. What intrigues me currently is that there is no one "typical" college student, but that so many college students expect classes to be "typically" easy for them.

Yes, some English classes (of which I have the most experience) will be easy for some students; these students are either naturals, in that they were the ones who won the writing awards in high school, served on the school paper or yearbook, read voraciously, and have a natural ability to write effectively regardless of their audience. They are out there. And then there are those who struggle mightily to get the A or B grade, submitting draft after draft, working overtime, getting tutors. They succeed even without the "natural" talent.

It's the others that continue to surprise me, even after 9 years of teaching full-time. When I was a college student, I never expected courses to be a "gimme." I did expect college professors to abide by their own syllabi and be reasonable, grading on topics they covered in class, to be available for help during office hours, to be pleasant and to not show favorites. But I'm noticing a trend in what I consider beyond-the-pale behavior in the demand for A grades by those whose work is not exemplary.

Here's an example. A few semesters ago, I had a student in one of my classes get a B. From all the documents and my own experiences as a grader, I know that B stands for "above average effort" and is considered a good grade. The student in question wasn't particularly bad at what she did: she showed up for all her classes; asked questions; did her work on time. Based on my rubrics for how I grade, and the grades she did, she got a good, solid B. Now here's the disconnect: I received an email from her a few days after the course was complete, complaining about the B. It seems as if Samantha (a pseudonym) figured that her attendance and regular submissions earned her the A grade.

So I ask you: what is in a grade? What differentiates an A from a B student? My answer is generally the same: it's in the writing. Showing up and asking questions is good, of course, but in an English class the writing is the significant output device, the way in which a student can display their knowledge of course concepts, their ability to negotiate the terrain of scholarly writing, and their opportunities to move an audience from apathy to acceptance.

I'm sure Samantha continued to be upset about her grade. But this is happening more often, and sometimes it just has to do not with the earned effort, but other outside pressures that revolve around both teacher and student. Consider the points made by Richard Schiming of Minnesota State University regarding grade inflation, a term coined to describe why some teachers and professors give higher grades than the average:

1. Institutional pressure to retain students;
2. Increased attention and sensitivity to personal crisis situations for students;
3. Higher grades used to obtain better student evaluations of teaching;
4. The increased use of subjective or motivational factors in grading;
5. Faculty attitudes;
6. Content deflation; and
7. Changing mission.

It happens often, and there isn't just one neat solution to fix the issue. Some students are used to getting good grades. But what college faculty need to do is make clear that there is a standard difference between high school and college work, just as there is between undergraduate and graduate-level work. That showing up is great, but it by no means is a guarantee of excellence. That every professor grades uniquely, and that students should learn the context of the classroom, meaning that knowing what to ask and give each individual professor is as necessary as completing the assignment on time.

And, sometimes, the most important thing to learn is that not everybody is an A student, and that there is nothing wrong with a B or a C.