Grade inflation. (I'm against it.)

I love education—always have, always will. I love being a student. Learning new information, writing papers (yes, I actually enjoy writing papers), discussing with classmates interesting topics—I love it all.

In recent years, I have discovered my love of education from the perspective of an educator. I enjoy creating exams, suggesting curricula changes, and mentoring students. (I tend to have more of a love-hate relationship with grading papers, but that is neither here nor there.)

I get it!
Working as a teaching assistant is interesting, because I am neither the student nor the faculty member of record. I get to see things from both sides. I am closer in age to most of the students than the faculty members are, and, in all of my TA experiences except one, the faculty members are further removed from nursing school than I am. That said, I understand student anxieties and frustrations. “Honestly,” I tell them, “I get it!”

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What I don’t “get” is the overwhelming desire to achieve perfect grades. As an MSN-prepared nurse educator, I appreciate an exam that yields beautifully shaped, bell-curve scores. I understand that not everyone can or should receive a top score. I recognize that, on the NCLEX, more than one answer may be correct but candidates are examined on their ability to choose the best answers. I realize that the drive to have a perfect GPA should never supersede one’s drive to acquire excellent nursing skills.

I will admit that, as a nursing student, I loved it when an instructor granted extra points to compensate for a poorly written exam question. I even had one professor who gave an extra point to anyone who discovered a grammatical error on exams she gave. Free points were an unexpected surprise. However, as an educator, I do not agree with this practice. I think students should receive only the grades they earn. Call me Nurse Educator Hatchet, but I am not a fan of grade inflation, and I have no plans of contributing to it.

Once, after being questioned about the legitimacy of a grade I gave, I sent the following email to a student: I understand, trust me. I once cried in a professor’s office after receiving an A- instead of an A on a paper. I get it. I have also been a nurse for nine years, so I understand the insignificance of grades in “the real world.” Your worth as a nurse will not be rooted in your GPA. To be frank, your worth as a student isn’t, either. You are so much more than the grades on your transcript. Striving for excellence is always the best way to go. As a PhD student, however, I’ve learned that the pursuit of perfection can actually cause more harm than good. You all did a wonderful job in class. You received a well-deserved grade in a fast-paced course with material that is very different from what you are used to. Please don’t be too hard on yourself.

The bigger picture
I sincerely hope this student took my words to heart. We are not the sum total of our GPAs! We cannot allow ourselves to get so caught up in getting the best grades that we miss the bigger picture of getting the best education. As students, we don’t pay tuition with the expectation of buying a stellar GPA. We pay tuition with the expectation of being well-prepared to take the NCLEX or an advanced practice licensing exam.

I have witnessed, via social media, the disrespect of students unhappy with their grades. They say things about their instructors that I’m sure they wouldn’t say to these men and women in person. It seems that they think life is over if they don’t earn an A on every assignment or exam. I remind my students that I have never been asked to show my transcripts during a job interview. No one cared whether I received an A or a C in pathophysiology or pharmacology. In the real world, nurses are judged on their ability to provide appropriate care and to do it with a smile. On the hospital unit, grades are a nonfactor.

It's not just students
Students aren’t the only ones obsessed about grades. Some educators also obsess over whether they are perceived as a friendly, likeable instructor or a hard-grading one. Obsess as we may, we are not here to be our students’ friends. It is unethical to give exams after we have already given the answers to them, or to reward students with grades that don’t match their academic or clinical performance. We need to be supportive of one another and ensure that students actually learn the material we are required to teach. We are not in a profession where we can afford to allow students to enter the workforce unprepared.

I implore educators to take a good look in the mirror. Are we helping students by giving away unearned points? Should we continue to send nursing graduates into the workforce with an unrealistic assessment of their abilities by padding their grades? Are we doing the next generation of nurses any real favors when, to quiet the voices of students disappointed with grades they have earned, we change those grades? Are we giving outstanding students in our classes an opportunity to accurately represent themselves when we inflate grades of students who should be receiving median grades? No, no, no, and no!

I believe the answer to the current obsession with grades is to move from a letter-grading system to a pass-fail system. If grades were given in the same manner as NCLEX scores, students would not have to worry about their GPAs. I honestly believe such a shift in grading would do wonders for the morale of nursing students. Until a shift to a pass-fail grading system occurs—or if it never does—nurse educators must work to ensure students are given the grades they earn, while doing their best not to break the students’ spirits in the process. We need to build up nursing students, while helping them understand that their grades do not reflect their future careers as nurses.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

Learning to balance

Here I am, two-thirds of the way through my first year as a doctoral student, and I still have most of my sanity. Following my first quarter, I realized that, if I continued to approach school with such a serious and unwavering dedication to being the best, I would probably be carried out of class someday on a stretcher. I entered my doctoral program believing I had to prove to myself that I was worthy of acceptance into the program. Now, I’m not sure why I felt this way because, quite honestly, no one had ever uttered such words to me, but I was a woman on a mission.

You see, I’ve always enjoyed the extracurricular aspects of school far more than the academic side of things. I did my work because, if I didn’t maintain a 2.0 GPA, I couldn’t cheer, or I would be discouraged from participating in the school musical or, worst of all, my mother would not be pleased. I managed to always maintain an A-/B+ average without much effort. Well, now that I was going to be a doctoral student, I planned to put forth all the effort I could muster up.

During that first quarter, I woke up early to read and went to bed late for the same reason. I set aside a few days each week when I would not allow myself to leave my apartment. On those days, I would read and write. My pen and my highlighter were my best friends. The only social outlets I had for most of the first quarter of the program were random text exchanges with my friends and the time I spent on Facebook. I would not allow myself to spend face-to-face time with my peers, because I thought that time could be better used reading. I didn’t even go to the gym. I convinced myself an hour spent on the elliptical machine was one hour that should be spent reading. I came out of my first quarter with a 4.0 GPA, but I paid a great price for it. It took most of the five weeks of my winter break to recoup from the psychological and emotional damage I had done to myself.

Enter the second quarter. I made a promise to myself that I would not be so focused on school that I was unable to enjoy the other parts of my life. I decided that each Sunday after church, I would spend the rest of the day doing whatever I wanted to do. I had many lazy Sunday afternoons. I went out to lunch with my friends, and spent time visiting with my family. I also didn’t beat myself during the week if I didn’t read every single word of the assigned reading, or if I took the long way home on a sunny afternoon. I told myself the work would get done. I didn’t need to plan out every minute of every day to ensure I remained on task. I even told myself that it would be OK to start dating again and, as fate would have it, I reconnected with my high school sweetie in a chance meeting. (Really, the story sounds like something out of a romance movie.) We are involved in a relationship again, and I am happier than ever.

So, I ended up with one B+ this quarter. That’s OK; I’m still learning how to balance my life. I must admit I was probably a little too lax this quarter. I dare not write some of the things I did (or didn’t do) as it relates to my schoolwork, and I have learned that writing a paper the night before it’s due may not be the best way to go about it. But hey, it’s a learning process, right? I have learned that life does not end because school begins. We have to be able to incorporate school into our lives and not make school the center of our universe. In the four years that I will spend as a doctoral student, I can’t allow myself to be only a student and nothing else. A lot can happen in four years. My entire life shouldn’t be put on hold because I’m working toward a doctoral degree. Nor should my friends or family be neglected. It’s all about balance. Balancing my life and prioritizing what is truly important has become a great lesson for me. They say a taught lesson is a bought lesson. We’ll just say I paid for this one in cash.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing. Sigma Theta Tau International.