STEM courses are harder: evaluating inter-course grading disparities with a calibrated GPA model

International Journal of STEM Education

Table 2 Comparisons of largest general education course (“Gen-ed”) offered by ten STEM departments and that department’s first course for majors (“Gateway”)

Department	Gen-ed	Offset	n	Gateway	Offset	n	Difference	p value	t value
Atmospheric Sci	ATMS 120	0.64	7243	ATMS 201	0.68	506	− 0.03	0.2126	1.25
Astronomy	ASTR 100	0.26	6597	ASTR 210	0.27	811	0.53	< 0.0001	19.67
Chemistry	CHEM 108	0.92	199	CHEM 102	− 0.62	22,356	1.54	< 0.0001	31.92
Computer Sci	CS 105	− 0.02	6448	CS 125	− 0.04	5373	0.01	0.3803	0.88
El. & Co. Eng	ECE 101	0.32	243	ECE 110	− 0.33	6635	0.65	< 0.0001	13.93
Geology	GEOL 100	0.13	4164	GEOL 107	0.10	1154	0.02	0.2180	1.23
Integrative Bio	IB 105	0.42	3729	IB 150	0.00	8037	0.42	< 0.0001	35.09
Mat. Sci. Eng	MSE 101	0.16	116	MSE 201	− 0.27	868	0.43	< 0.0001	7.90
Physics	PHYS 140	0.04	3471	PHYS 211	− 0.40	17,329	0.44	< 0.0001	30.59
Statistics	STAT 100	0.44	17,384	STAT 200	0.23	1814	0.21	< 0.0001	15.07