Grade Trend Analysis for a Credit-Bearing Library Instruction Course

Statistics suggest the prevalence of grade inflation nationwide, and researchers perform many analyses on student grades at both university and college levels. This analysis focuses on a one-credit library instruction course for undergraduate students at a large public university. The studies examine thirty semester GPAs and the percentages of As awarded over a fifteen-year period, from fall 1999 to spring 2014, to identify if there is any trend in the grades for the credit-bearing course. This longitudinal study is also intended to develop a practical method to evaluate student grades and to identify potential grading inconsistency problems for similar courses.