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Some writers dispute the term grade inflation and prefer grade compression (e.g., Cizek, 1996; Hancher, 1994). Cizek (1996) contends that because there is no higher grade than an A, As remain As, but Bs become As, Cs become Bs, and so on. The result is that it takes less to achieve an A, there are almost no failures, the majority of grades are As and Bs, and the C grade, which normally signifies average, has virtually disappeared. For example, Levine (1994) in his study of 4900 undergraduate students' GPAs found that grade of C had dropped by approximately two-thirds, despite evidence that the academic ability of students had not increased. At the same time, student GPAs of A- or higher had "almost quadrupled from 1969 to 1993" (Levine, 1994, p. B3). Ontario researchers found a drop in the number of students getting low grades in most courses, and an increase in the number getting high grades (Frank, 2001). And obviously, as high-achieving students can earn no better than an A, it is students of lower ability who are experiencing the highest rate of grade increase (McSpirit and Jones, 1999).
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