A Comparison of Community College Full-Time and Adjunct Faculties' Perceptions of Factors Associated With Grade Inflation

Abstract

Grades historically have indicated student performance in college. Previous studies in the higher education literature, primarily conducted at four-year teaching institutions, have suggested reasons for grade inflation but have provided little supporting empirical data. This quantitative, non-experimental, comparative study used survey research to explore whether there is a difference in the degree to which full-time and adjunct faculties perceived themselves to be influenced by factors thought to be associated with grade inflation, specifically in a community college setting. Data analyzed from 1,559 full-time and adjunct faculty of a Midwestern community college in the United States indicated full-time faculty felt they were significantly more influenced by administration pressures than adjunct faculty in their grade assignment, whereas adjunct faculty reported being most often influenced by student concerns such as (a) personal circumstances, (b) academic anxieties, and (c) success after the course.

Keywords:

• grade inflation
• faculty
• community college
• grade assignment
• role theory