Harvard undergraduates would compete for a limited number of A grades in their courses under a faculty committee proposal released Friday meant to tame grade inflation at the Ivy League school.
During the last school year, about two-thirds of all undergraduate letter grades were A’s. Under the new proposal, grades of A would be limited to 20 percent of grades in a course, with an allowance of four additional A’s.
So, for example, a professor teaching a class of 100 students would be able to award up to 24 grades of A under the proposal, which could come to a vote by faculty this spring. There would be no limits on A-minus and lower grades.
Grades of A at Harvard are supposed to be reserved for work of “extraordinary distinction,” but they have exploded to become the majority of grades awarded.
In developing the proposal, the committee decided to propose returning the A to a lofty designation, as it had originally been intended, said Alisha Holland, a professor in the Department of Government at Harvard and a member of the committee that issued the proposal. “We thought, ‘What if we try to give meaning to the shared standards we already have around grading?’”
Joshua Silverstein, a professor of law at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, said the proposal, if approved, should effectively control inflation and make grades more meaningful.
The purpose of grades, he said, is to signal to students their level of accomplishment and subject mastery, help outside parties such as employers and graduate school admissions officers differentiate among candidates, and to help fairly disperse rewards, such as honors and merit scholarships.
“I like what Harvard is doing,” said Mr. Silverstein, who has studied and written about grading theory. “I think it’s a very important step in the right direction” to allow grades to once again serve their intended function.
If nearly every grade is an A, then grades no longer serve much purpose, he added.
Studies have found grade inflation to be a national issue that has been intensifying for decades.
Harvard has been trying to make A’s more rare. Its Office of Undergraduate Education released a report in October urging faculty to bring grading “back into integrity.” The encouragement seemed to have some effect: Grades of A fell to 53.4 percent in the fall semester.
Harvard’s grade inflation report in October floated the notion of recognizing the very best students by allowing a limited number of A+’s, a grade not used at Harvard, but that idea is not in the new proposal.
The new proposal would also determine rankings for honors and awards not by grade point average but average percentile rank, which is a measure of how students in a course compare with one another, the proposal says. That ranking would be for Harvard’s internal use and not appear on transcripts.
Princeton University attacked grade inflation in the early 2000s, with a recommended limit on A’s, which did tame inflation. The measure was unpopular with students, however, who said it increased competitiveness and stress, and discouraged cooperation. The limit was repealed a decade ago, and grade inflation returned.
Mr. Silverstein said increased competitiveness for limited top grades is “a real concern,” though he still believes the proposal would be valuable.
The proposal will be up for discussion at town hall-style meetings on campus later this month.
Mark Arsenault covers higher education for The Times.
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