Princeton combats grade inflation

BOSTON -- College grades have been creeping steadily upward for 30 years, but Princeton University may try to break the trend by rationing the number of A's that can be awarded. The proposal has academics wondering already about the possible impact at other schools.\nIn what would be the strongest measure to combat grade inflation by an elite university, Princeton faculty will vote later this month on a plan that would require each academic department to award an A-plus, A or A-minus for no more than 35 percent of its grades.\nA's have been awarded 46 percent of the time in recent years at Princeton, up from 31 percent in the mid-1970s. Since 1998, the New Jersey school has been encouraging its faculty to crack down, but marks have kept rising. Finally, Princeton administrators decided the only solution would be to ration top grades.\n"I think it's tremendously significant that Princeton is doing this, and I do think it will have a ripple effect," said Bradford P. Wilson, executive director of the National Association of Scholars, a group that has spoken out against grade inflation, and also a part-time teacher at Princeton. "What goes on at the premiere institutions sets the standard of quality for every institution in the country."\nSo far, most schools that have tried to stem grade inflation have little to show for it. Harvard University, criticized several years ago for allowing more than 90 percent of its students to graduate with honors, cut back its honors degrees but has not ordered faculty to lower or limit grades.\nGrade inflation seems to date to Vietnam War era, when many professors were reluctant to flunk students and consign them to the draft, said David Breneman, dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia.\nOther factors made it snowball, including competition to attract students, and tuition increases that have convinced some students and parents that good grades are an entitlement when they pay as much as $35,000 per year.\nCompounding the problem, grade inflation tends to feed on itself; if one department or school is doing it, others are under pressure to follow, or risk disadvantaging their own students when they step into the job market.\n"If everybody's getting A's, then you have to make sure you do, and the slightest defect on your record can look like a horrible stain," said Harvey Mansfield, a Harvard professor who has spoken out against grade inflation. A Harvard spokesman did not return a message seeking comment.\nHistorically, instructors have often resisted intrusions into their classrooms -- be they from administrators who want grades kept in check or from students and their parents who want them raised.\nPrinceton Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel, who wrote the plan, said when she asked department chairs to try harder to lower grades, they replied the only solution was a directive from above. Teachers were willing to act, they told her, but only if every department acted in unison.\nNow, the question is whether that logic will prompt other schools to act.\nBreneman said other institutions such as Harvard -- like Princeton, ranked in the nation's top academic tier -- may follow suit, but it's too early to tell whether others will, too.\n"Whether one institution is now going to be able to turn back the tide, I'm not sure," he said.\nAnd, Breneman noted, Princeton has taken a risk by moving first. "If nobody else follows, Princeton may get in a bind where they'll have to relax it," he said.\nMalkiel said she hopes other schools will follow, but until they do, she doesn't believe Princeton students would be harmed. Her proposal calls for Princeton transcripts to include an explanation of the grading process, and Malkiel said graduate schools and employers have told her they would welcome the change.\n"What I've heard repeatedly is, first, this is a good thing to do, somebody has to have the courage to take on grade inflation," she said. "And secondly, this would redound to the benefit of Princeton students. They've said, 'We'll be able to know Princeton grades are real grades."