Students care about grades—a lot.
This explains why the Columbia Daily Spectator caused quite a stir when it recently reported that a shocking number of Columbia students boast 4.0 GPAs. For those curious, one in 12 Columbia undergraduates earned GPAs of 4.0 or higher last semester. During the 2005-2006 school year, 52 percent of grades given out were As and A-s.
This has prompted recent discussions at Princeton and the University of Pennsylvania about just how much air to let that out of the bloated grade balloon.
Duke has not indulged in inflation as deeply as Columbia. In 2007, Duke students posted an average GPA of around 3.4. By comparison, our grading policies seem austere.
Grade inflation still presents a problem. Disparities between the sciences and the humanities and social sciences have left many students who are set on attending graduate school or netting a competitive job feeling sour. And rightly so—grades have real meaning to employers and admissions officers.
At its heart, grade inflation is an academic issue. It poses a question about what kind of students we should seek to be, and what kinds of students our professors should demand we become. As such, it will take both students and professors to solve the grade inflation problem.
Grades give students an academic standard for which to strive. A great education entails professors challenging students to achieve more than students think they can, and students rising to meet the challenge. Grades give professors a way to encourage this intellectual struggle and to reward excellent scholarship.
For this system to work professors have to award grades justly, and students have to feel that grades have meaning. This does not always happen. Professors start to hand out too many As. Students begin to see grades as entitlements instead of awards. When education loses this sense of rigor, it becomes effete and meaningless. Case in point—humanities classes, which typically have higher average grades, are often written off as easy. They are widely viewed as good electives, but not a core curriculum for serious students.
Many universities and schools have grappled with grade inflation. Princeton demands that departments only give As and A-s to 35 percent of enrolled students per semester. At Duke, the Sanford School of Public Policy sets strict constraints on grade distributions in its undergraduate courses, as do other departments.
But setting hard and fast limits on grades is to miss part of what makes grades valuable. Earning a grade should not be about gaming some professor’s procrustean grade distribution chart or trouncing your peers. Grade deflation can cause students to obsess over competition with their peers. This cutthroat atmosphere is a far cry from the open dialogue of true intellectual engagement.
We cannot fix grade inflation with strict requirements, but more vigilance is necessary. Professors need to remember that grading rigorously is a fundamental part of teaching. Departments should hold their professors to rigorous standards. Students need to accept that grades are not an entitlement—not something to be bargained over, but something to strive for.
This joint effort can keep grades, and education, meaningful.
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