Source Info

This report is based on data that VCU InSight requested from the university under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act.

In April, VCU officials provided data on the grades awarded in all undergraduate courses taught during the three most recently completed academic years. The data came in six Microsoft Excel files, one for each semester: Fall 1999, Spring 2000, Fall 2000, Spring 2001, Fall 2001 and Spring 2002.

The files covered more than 14,700 courses. For each course, the university gave such information as the college or school, the department, the instructor's name and the number of A's, B's, C's, D's and F's.

For the analysis, VCU InSight combined the six files into a single data set. The reporters then analyzed the data using Microsoft Access. For each academic unit, for each course and for each instructor, the reporters posed these queries:

Of all grades awarded, what percentage were A's? (For this calculation, the reporters totaled all A's, B's, C's, D's and F's, and then divided the number of A's by that total. The computation excluded audits, withdrawals and incompletes, unless the incomplete later converted to an F.)
Of all grades awarded, what percentage were D's or F's?
What was the grade point average of all the grades awarded? (For this calculation, an A counted as a 4, a B as a 3, a C as a 2, a D as a 1 and an F as a zero.)