Grade Inflation in the Family Medicine Clerkship

Abstract

Background and objectives: Medical educators perceive grade inflation to be a serious problem. There is some literature discussing the magnitude of the problem and ways to remediate it, but little literature is available in the field of family medicine. We sought to examine what methods of remediating grade inflation have been tried by family medicine clerkship directors, and what factors influence the chosen method of addressing this problem.

Methods: We conducted a national Council of Academic Family Medicine's (CAFM) Educational Research Alliance (CERA) survey of family medicine clerkship directors, inquiring about their perceptions of the seriousness of grade inflation, whether it was perceived as a remediable problem, and what methods had been tried within the last 3 years to address this problem.

Results: The response rate was 69%. Clerkship directors' perceptions that grade inflation is a serious problem either nationally or in their own clerkship did not correlate with how they weighted the objective versus subjective portions of the clerkship grade. Clerkship directors who agreed that grade inflation was a remediable problem had a higher percentage of nonexamination objective criteria and a lower percentage of subjective criteria in their grading formula. Clerkship directors who agreed grade inflation is a problem in their clerkship were more likely to have tried giving feedback to graders on grade distribution than those who didn't think grade inflation was a problem.

Conclusions: Family medicine clerkship directors perceive grade inflation to be a serious problem, both at a national level and in their clerkships. Various methods of addressing grade inflation have been tried by family medicine clerkship directors.