2
Tuesday, July 14, 1964
Summer Nebraskan
Poge 3
Grade Distributions An Aid
G:
racte inconsistencies
Exist
At
EDITOR'S NOTE: This
article by University Regis
trar Floyd Hoover first ap
peared in the COLLEGE
AND UNIVERSITY, The
Journal of the American As
sociation of Collegiate Reg
istrar's and Admissions Of
ficers, Winter 1964. It ap
uvd under the title of
"Some Effects of Mailing
Grade Distributions to Fac
ulties." By Floyd Hoover
Qver a period of years it
was observed that some
courses, especially on the
freshmen sophomore level
had consistently high rates
of failure. Conversely, the
grades in some other courses
were consistenly much high
er than others.
In an attempt to bring
these discrepancies to light,
grade distributions were set
up by department and by
individual classes within
each department. A copy
was always mailed to the
department chairman and
to their respective deans.
Whether or not the informa
tion was used by depart
ments to any great extent
is not known. It is definite
ly known, however, that
there was little or no
exchange of information
across college lines. It is
probably, too, that there
was little exchange of in
formation among depart
ments within the same col
lege. The net effect was,
therefore, less than had
been hoped for.
The distribution of grades
of service courses such as
mathematics and English
is a matter of importance
to the colleges they serve.
If grades, particularly in
specific service courses, are
used as one criterion for ad
missibility into a college,
they become extremely im
portant. Because of exces
sively low grades, one de
partment can cause a de
crease in the enrollment
in the college. This actual
ly happened at the Univer
sity of Nebraska until the
facts were brought to light.
During the past five years
grade distributions have
been mailed to each faculty
member at the end of each
semester showing the dis
tributions of grades in all
freshman and sophomore
courses enrolling 70 or more
students. These distributions
have been set up in terms
of courses and not individ
ual classes. Mention should
be made that distributions
of grades by individual class
don ham arm
of
Sartor-IIamann
says
'it pays to advertise .
in the summer nebraskan."
FOR AVERAGE GRADE, DIVIDE
DEPT. NAME
Mm.
ENGL IS
ENGL IS
ENIBLIS
ENSL1S
ENCLIS
ENfiLIS
GERMAN
GEfeMAN
HISTOR
HISTOR.
hoAe E
MICR8I
MICRBI
MATH
MATH
MATH
MATH
MATH
MATH
MU$IC
004
007
Oil
021
022
026
002
004
002
092
191C
051F
100
Oil
014
01S
042
119
116
092
5536
5.112
5270
5152
3
68
3
2
2K
II
7
3
8ft
IX
ft
ft
ft
16ft
25
15S
16ft
16S
9S
ft
5.J94
5925
5.733
5813
4896
5.360
6533
5.923
5956
4586
3704
4650
4321
4.028
4.640
8.488
SPEECH
SPEECH
SPEECH
SPEECH
zobL
ZObL
009
011
109
111
002
102
5.636
5.869
6.126
6.033
5.133
1
1
4ft
lft
3
IS
5.921
sections are still being
mailed out to department
chairman and to the ap
propriate college deans.
By definition of the Uni
versity Senate, grades of 9
and 8 approximate A;
grades of 6 and 7 approxi
mate B; grades of 5 and 4
approximate C; 3 and 2,
D; and 1 equals failure.
The distribution of grades
in the aggregate do not
bear this out, but the def
inition still stands.
Three symbols which are
2 SEM
HONOR POINTS Br CREDIT HOURS.
COMPUTATIONAL
DISTRIBUTION OF QUANTITATIVE GRADES
37
2
4
2
3
7
6
4
7
2
8
5
9
14
3
4
9
261
104
7
5
31
13
9
23
19
13
27
20
8
9
8
7
37
12
8
8
70
187
8
15
42
50
29
27
14
22
65
42
25
17
14
22
36
12
10
19
18
273
23
32
100
72
19
25
26
47
110
41
31
24
14
28
46
21
22
23
7
248
125
31
23
5
11
9
8
12
31
14
38
17
19
27
50
18
83
30
36
49
64
14
53
24
9
26
76
16
4
2
11
7
1011
1796B150
3944
1$
This chart is a part of a set
somewhat unique to the Uni
versity of Nebraska are O,
P, and X. The symbol O
indicates Incomplete; P in
dicates Passed but not
Graded (used only on t h e
Graduate level); and X in
dicates dropped or with
drew in good standing.
If grade distributions
show decided skews to eith
er the right or left, distri
butions of individual class
sections can easily be
More Students Beginning
College During Summer
More students are begin
ning college this summer and
more are continuing their ed
ucation during the summer.
According to the Association
of State Universities and
Land-Grant Colleges:
At Pennsylvania State Uni
versity, nearly one-fourth of
the 1964 entering freshmen
over 1,000 began their stud
ies this summer. And Louisi
ana State University found
that 27 per cent more fresh
men began academic life this
summer than last summer.
The University of Minnesota
offered a complete orientation
program for the first time for
freshmen entering the univer
sity in either of the two sum
mer terms. "The expanded
orientation program," says a
University official, "is de
signed to meet a recognized
need for providing the sub
stantial number of students
who do start the University in
summer the same opportunity
to become introduced to uni
versity life as those who en-
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THE UNIVERSITY OF
1942
ANALYSIS OF FINAL GRADES
Prepared By
DATA PROCISSINO DEPARTMENT
DATA
152
18
69
36
21
20
27
27
41
12
24
27
24
12
11
11
39
22
17
16
14
35
5
1129
90
159
407
249
104
135
112
211
456
122
91
91
99
246
351
134
180
161
367
27
4
83
10
6
1
10
3
34
9
11
11
31
80
6
13
11
12
30
44
21
33
23
2
16
6
16
62
54
22
32
15
22
11
216
99
85
122
378
89
8
6
82
1
20
4
a
34
7
4
27481432
915
85tf
2C320
of grade distributions
checked to determine if the
pattern of skewing is uni
form in the course or is
caused by one or more in
structors teaching the same
course. Should the latter be
the case, the Undergraduate
Council of Deans always
asks for explanations.
Sometimes an instructor's
teaching load is shifted if
his grading appears to be
excessively high or exces
sively low.
roll during the regular aca
demic year."
Last year, just under 200
Minnesota freshmen entered
in the summer and the in
creased number of this year's
high school graduates has
swelled the group of entering
freshmen.
Studies at both Minnesota
and the University of Wiscon
sin found that the perform
ance of freshmen who entered
in the summer compared fa
vorably with that of those who
entered in tha fall. At Wiscon
sin, the men grade-point av
erage for freshmen "in a typ
ical summer" was 2.43, com
pared to 2.19 in a first se
mester. The Wisconsin study
also found that freshman who
entered in the summer "con
tinued to do at least as well
as their classmates the next
semester."
The Minnesota study, al
though not specifying grade-
point average, found that
freshmen entering in the sum
mer of 1963 "performed as
well or better from the stand
point of grades earned" than
freshmen entering In Fall
1962. "It would appear from
this study that these students
were not disadvantaged by
the rapid pace nf the summer
session," the Minnesota offi
cial commented.
A sampling of six state and
land-grant institutions shows
a considerable overall in
crease in summer enroll
ments. At Wisconsin, enroll
ment in the new 12-week Sum
mer Session hit an unexpected
high of 1,143. Total summer
enrollment on the Madison
campus was expected to go
over 10,000 and at the Mil
waukee campus, over 4,000.
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Certain Tim l:M P.M.
AamlMion II.M
MILLIRDRAMMERS Wed. fhr lot.
NEBRASKA
GRADES
Credit Htjurs
Htnw Points
3387
265
318
1221
747
312
675
336
633
1368
366
273
273
297
982
1755
402
720
80S
365
1S750
1360
1676
6291
4029
1848
3870
1953
3099
7332
2391
1617
1626
1362
3637
8169
17J7
2900
3735
3998
99
599
297
199
366
1133
356
3376
1743
1219
2208
5616
2108
56284
298148
163
mailed to faculty members.
As one direct result of
mailing grade distributons
to all faculty members, a
course which has been open
to freshmen was upgraded
to sophomore level. It was
discovered that even top
quarter freshmen were
earning low grades in com
petition with students who
had had a year or more of
background.
Another course was re
examined in the light of the
At Clemson College, summer
enrollment reached a ten-year
peak 1,532 this year, com
pared with 1,347 last summer.
At Louisiana State Univer
sity, the total summer enroll
ment of 10,000 equalled the to
tal fall enrollment on the
campus seven years ago. The
University of Arkansas found
a five per cent increase in
summer enrollment and the
University of North Carolina
summer enrollment is ex
pected to equal the 10,415 en
rolled in the Spring semester
just completed.
Almost two-thirds of the
country's college and univer
sity full-time undergraduate
students 64 per cent or
1,727,849 were enrolled in
public institutions in Fall 1963,
according to an analysis of
U.S. Office of Education fig
ures made by the Association
of State Universities and
Land-Grant Colleges.
Fifty-seven per cent, or
1,533,684, were attending, pub
lic institutions in their home
state, while seven per cent
194,165 were In out-of-state
public institutions.
The breakdown of in-state
and out-of-state enrollment in
public institutions has partic
ular significance now, at a
time when rising enrollments
are forcing many state legis
latures to ask state end land
grant institutions to consider
limiting admission of out-of-state
students in order to as
sure space to qualified resi
dents. The Association's analysis
indicates that almost 200,000
full-tim undergraduate stu
dents now attend public col
leges and universities in
states other than their own.
DESCRIPTIVE
SUMMARY
3T
12
i
31
3282
252
310
1191
729
309
625
327
585
1350
366
273
273
249
733
1465
336
592
730
461
15
4
12
105
13
8
30
IS
3
50
9
48
18
U
a
48
247
27.0
66
128
75
3
32
2:
32
12
14
9
3
5
2
19
2
590
294
194
363
1103
352
9
3
5
3
30
4
112
53662
399
2727
grades earned by able
freshmen who had met the
prerequisities. In effect, it
was discovered that teach
ing techniques were at fault.
Re-testing the students
showed that learnings had
not been acquired. Subse
quently, different instruc
tors were assigned and the
mean grade in the course
moved upward a full grade
point.
A few years ago one of
the undergraduate colleges
established a rule that all of
its students must complete
one course with a grade
of 6 or better to be eligible
for graduation. The inevit
able happened. The
grade distributions in t h e
course have been heavily
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skewed toward the high end
of the grading scale. Some
semesters no grades below
6 have been given. Because
every faculty member in all
colleges receive copies of the
grade distributi., this
marked skew has Men caus
ing some embarrassment
and mr,y eventual? lead to
a modification of the rule.
Drop outs reflect a varie
ty of things: inability of the
student to keep up with the
class, the course content is
not what was ?xpected, dis
satisfaction with the pres
sentation, personality con
flict, and sometimes, dis
covery that the course had
been, completed satisfactor
ily previously. This last
may seem incredible, but it
happens, nevertheless.
At the University of Ne
braska students are al
lowed to drop a course in
good standing until the end
of the fourth week of school.
However, students some
times drop out of class even
if they are in bad standing
and receive a failure at the
end of the semester. Thus,
there is no way of knowing
the total drop out in a given
course on the basis of the
grade distributions. Not
withstanding, most shifts
out of classes are clearly
shown.
To faculty members who
like to keep reports over a
period of years grade dis
tributions serve well to in
dicate enrollment fluctua
tions. There are other and
more complete, sources of
information concering this
point, but the distributions
do enable one to tell at a
glance which departments
are growing faster than oth
ers. Grade distributions ought
never be looked upon as ab
solute measures. They are,
after all, largely subjective
and probably honest judg
ments of student progress.
Insistence upon conformity
to the normal suface of fre
quencies can lead to a cyn
ical disregard of learnings
actually acquired. If grades
fail to reflect honest judg
ments of learnings, theyv
become completely mean
ingless. However, in the absence
of anything better, freely
circulated grade distribu
tions have been beneficial
and they do tend to cause
instructors to examine
themselves a little more
closely than might other
wise be the case.
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dill la
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