1. Study of Grade Inflation Committee: Fuad AL-Mohanadi, Math Program Hemyan AL-Kuwari, Physics Program Muhanad Al-Khasawna, Stat Program Qatar University-College of Arts and sciences Department of Mathematics, Statistic's & Physics

2. October 2010: preliminary study on the university level seems to indicate that a course with percentage of grade of “A”  30% is necessarily “grade inflated”. Recommendation was given that each department carry out its own study on the matter of grade inflation within it. In the MSP Department second meeting on November the 10 th, 2010, a committee to study Grade Inflation within the Department was suggested and formed as follows: Dr. Fuad Al-Muhannadi, Math Program, Chair Dr. Muhanad Al-Khasawna, Stat Program, Member Dr. Hemyan AL-Kuwari, Physics Program, Member SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 2

3. 3 Step(1) :Questions to be answered Step(2) (starting point of the study) :Adopting a provisional workable definition for an “apparent grade definition” Step(3) :Designing a survey to be answered by the department instructors Step(5) :Arriving, at a later stage of the study, at more accurate definitions of genuine grade inflation Step(4) :Analyzing data, drawing conclusions, giving recommendations, and communicating findings

4. Q.1.What’s grade inflation, and in which sense it is a negative phenomenon: SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 4 Not practical workable definition to be used on the departmental level, for the time being, at least. Worldwide Definition: G.I. is an upward shift in the curve of grade point average (GPA) of students over a particular period of time without a noticeable increase in overall student ability and motivation Roughly: Assigning of a grade to a student higher than deserved

5. Q.2. Is the growing of the percentage of “A”s and “B” s over a period of time is a reliable tool to identify any unbalanced grade distribution as a genuine grade inflation case? SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 5 Q.3. Is the ongoing increase in grade point average (GPA) of students can serve as a measurable benchmark for genuine academic achievement of students? Q.4. Does the seemingly nice and “statistically sound” grading curves provide a strong evidence of enhanced learning and academic achievement?

6. Q.5. Does a seemingly nice and “statistically sound” grading curves provide a strong empirical evidence for the absence of grade inflation problem? SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 6 Q.6. what is the impact of grade inflation on student’s motivation, and development, quality of learning and teaching processes, and over all on the quality of graduates?. Q.7. What are the potential causes of grade inflation?

7. Definition of AGI-Course A final assessment of the student performance in a course will be considered a candidate of an instance of apparent grade inflation, if either the percentage of the students assigned a grade of “A” is at least 25% or the percentage of the students assigned a grade of “B” or better is at least 50%. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 7 criterion: A particular course constitutes an “ apparent grade inflation case” If the percentage of high grades (A, B+, B) awarded is remarkably high

8. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 8 CAUTION: A Course that fulfills the proposed condition and qualifies as an apparent case of grade inflation is not necessarily a case of genuine inflation. Another in- depth investigation is required to arrive to an accurate conclusion.

9. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 9 A number of 91 cases (57 in fall 2009 and 34 in spring semester, 2010) of apparent grade inflation cases were identified Of the 57 cases of fall, 2009, 20 are in the Math Program, 14 in the Statistics Program and 23 in the Physics Program. Of the 34 cases of spring, 2010, seven are in the Math Program, 8 in the Statistics Program and 19 in the Physics Program

10. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 10 60 % of the apparently grade-inflated physics courses were Lab based courses 46% of the apparently grade-inflated courses were from Physics program,30% from Math program while 24% from stat program For practical reasons, the cases pertaining to instructors no longer present were disregarded; this left us with only 63 cases of A.G.I

11. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 11 What’s your explanation of the fact that at least 25% of the students have been assigned an “A” grade, AND/OR 50% of the students have been assigned a “B” or better grade? 1.The majority or all of these students are high achieving students, judged by their overall GPA or the GPA in the term under question. 2.The majority or all of these students has done well in the sequence of courses leading to the course under question. 3.A good number of students, who had not done well in the midterm exams, dropped the course, at some stage, to avoid getting an undesirable grade, and thus the mentioned percentage does not reflect the actual situation. 4.The enrollment includes two highly polarized groups with regard to proficiency, with one group consisting of students with “science school” background competing with a group of “art school” background.

12. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 12 What’s your explanation of the fact that at least 25% of the students have been assigned an “A” grade, AND/OR 50% of the students have been assigned a “B” or better grade? 5.The enrollment includes two of highly polarized groups with regard to proficiency, with one group consisting of students who had already done courses of higher level than the course under question competing with students taking a course of such nature for the first time. 6.The exams were easy because they were unified exams, and hence a “common denominator” compromise between number of instructors teaching different sections of the course. 7.The high percentage is the result of an upward shift of the grading curve to help the large number of students who got an initial score less than the minimum score required to pass the course. 8.The special nature of the course; Explain! 9.Other: (Specify!)

13. Response rate was 83 % : All the 5 contacted faculty of the statistics program answered the survey. Only 10 out of the13 contacted faculty of the math program answered the survey Only 5 of the 6 contacted faculty of the physics program answered the survey SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 13

14. Math Faculty Responses SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 14

15. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 15 Stat Faculty Responses

16. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 16 Physics Faculty Responses

17. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 17 Department Faculty Responses

18. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 18 Most of the apparent grade inflation cases are justified and explicable For majority of cases (n= 32, or 51.1%) the grades were inflated because the students were high achievers Fewer than 5% ( n=3 )of the cases of apparent grade inflation were due to unified easy exams Surprisingly, upward shifting of grading curve received null response.; Thus it is possible to exclude the occurrence of genuine grade inflation problem within MSP department

19. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 19 For 39% ( n=25)of apparently grade-inflated courses, various vague justification were provided: a.Few enrollments b.Easy course c.The students are from College of Engineering d.It is a lab course

20. Faculty feedback on the survey suggests that none of the apparent grade inflation cases pertaining to the survey participants constitute a genuine inflation cases. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 20 This provisional conclusion does not include the apparent inflation cases with no feedback yet received Because most of the apparent grade inflation cases are justified and explicable, There is a need to design a more unbiased tool to identify the genuine inflation.

21. The hypothesis that grade inflation skews grade distribution positively towards higher grades should be further examined imposing this hypothesis to identify grade inflation, might lead some instructors to apply a shifting –down of the grading curve mechanism or to give unreasonably hard final exams, thus, unfairly cheating good students out of their hard earned and well deserved excellent or good grades

22. Further Analysis: The table presented below shows the pattern of changes in the percentage of high grades assigned to the students enrolled in the courses of MSP department in the period from Fall 2007 through Spring 2011. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 22 NoNo Fall 2007 Spring 2008 Fall 2008 Spring 2009 Fall 2009 Spring 2010 Fall 2010 Spring 2011 Enrollments 17352020191819301701180717961815 A 299.0322.0375.0439.0370.0322.0260.0307 B+ 178.0210.0190.0210.0222.0203.0193.0199 B 207.0227.0222.0221.0203.0220.0203.0222 A % 17.215.919.622.721.817.814.516.9 B+ % 10.310.49.910.913.111.210.711.0 B % 11.911.211.611.511.912.211.312.2 Total (A-B)% 39.437.641.045.146.741.236.540.11

23. FURTHER Analysis : The graph presented below shows the pattern of changes in the percentage of high grades assigned to the students enrolled in the courses of MSP department in the period from Fall 2007 through Spring 2011. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 23 Towards spring 2009 percentage of grade ”A” had increased by 32%, and then decreased by 22% towards the period in which the phenomenon of grade inflation attracted attention within the university consistent pattern of quite semi-increase in the percentage of high grades. This percentage varies from 39.4% ( fall 2007) to 40.11% (Spring 2011)

24. Further Analysis : SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 24 The chart shows that the problem of Apparent Grade inflation was serious problem during Spring 2009 & Fall 2009. The graph indicates that after Fall 2009, the percentages of A’s are back to normal rates. However, the decline in A’s percentage after Fall 2009 is quite sudden.

25. On The Department Level SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 25 Recomm.1. To avoid the observed cases of extreme apparent and semi-genuine grade inflation : 1.Not to allow students to enroll in courses offered to students of much lower background; e.g. CENG students who want to register for MATH 103, MATH 104, MATH 119, STAT151, STAT153,.. CBE Students who want to register for MATH 103, MATH 104,..

26. On The Department Level SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 26 Recomm.1. To avoid the observed cases of extreme apparent and semi-genuine grade inflation : 2. Avoid having two highly polarized groups with respect to mathematical background (example: “art school-graduated” and “science school-graduated”) studying in the same section.

27. On The Department Level SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 27 Recomm.1. To avoid the observed cases of extreme apparent and semi-genuine grade inflation : 3. Not to make a lot of fuss about courses with many F’s 4. Develop a mechanism to ensure that all course outcomes are really covered and fully achieved by all instructors

28. On The Department Level SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 28 Recomm.1. To avoid the observed cases of extreme apparent and semi-genuine grade inflation : 5. Set a procedure to guarantee that the assessment/grading process for the lab based courses is supervised by a faculty 6. Devise an assessment/grading scheme for the capstone course that allow the other “examiners” to have some reasonable input

29. On the Department Level SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 29 Recomm.2. Most of the apparent grade inflation cases are justified and explicable, and thus It is necessary to invoke new criterion to identify cases of genuine grade inflation: “Grade inflation occurs in a particular course when there is an increase in the average of the grades awarded over time without a corresponding enhancement in the ability and academic achievement of students”

30. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 30 Recomm.3. Develop a reliable measure that quantifies the ongoing improvements in the ability and academic achievement of Students; e.g.: 1.Placement tests 2.Academic entry requirements 3.Academic ability entry tests 4.comprehensive qualification exit exams 5.Comprehensive study of student's GPA trend over an extended period of time 6.A standing committee to monitor genuine grade inflation: the incongruity between the grades and student learning & performance. On The Department Level

31. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 31 Recomm.4. The university should take leadership role in investigating the issue of grade inflation by establishing a task force to be charged with: On The College /University Level 1. Recast the proposed grade inflation definition (percentage of grade of “A”  30%) to account for the time dependence nature of genuine grade inflation

32. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 32 On The College /University Level 2. Establish a mechanism to measure quantitatively the student academic ability and achievement over an extended period of time 3. Generalize the obtained numerical pattern of grade increases and the corresponding students’ ability to develop the functional relationship between these two factors

33. SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 33 On The College /University Level 4. Provide supporting evidence of existence of a serious grade inflation and evaluate its rate 5. seek explanation why grade inflation occurs in QU 6. Identify the negative impacts of grade inflation on the process of learning and teaching 7. Suggest a series of solutions to be adopted by the university to avoid the extreme negative impacts of genuine Grade Inflation

34. And let us work together to have educational environment free of grade inflation SGIC-MSP Department – June 2011 34