Princeton University's recent efforts to curb grade inflation by devaluing the A+ resemble something closer to C-level work.
Three years ago, Princeton's Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing abolished the A+, a coveted mark long absent from Dartmouth transcripts. Despite those efforts, the A+ has survived in a modified form -- and grade inflation hasn't gone away either.
Previously, an A+ grade was awarded a value of 4.33, contributing to an average undergraduate GPA that climbed from 3.05 to 3.34 in the course of 25 years. The A+ has since been leveled to a 4.0 score -- the same value awarded to an A. Faculty members must also provide written confirmation of students' distinguished and unusual work.
Such measures were enacted to lessen the discrepancies between GPAs in the humanities and those in the sciences.
But the A+ -- a distinguishing presence on a student's transcript -- continues to be more common among the latter group.
The fall of the 4.33 A+ has had another unexpected result: an increase in the average GPA of Princeton students, which climbed to 3.36 in 2000, a year after the new policy went into effect, from 3.34 the year before.
Annual grade distribution reports and a guide to grading practices distributed among professors did not stop over 45 percent of all undergraduate grades in the 2000-2001 academic year from reaching A level. In 1997, by contrast, 42.5 percent of grades were A's.
The modified A+ has found minor success: it is growing increasingly rare and is now accompanied by a written statement on transcripts that serves to justify its presence.
Among seniors at Princeton, the only undergraduates who remember the old system, the devaluation of the A+ has not significantly affected their opinions of grade inflation.
"I don't know if [grade inflation] is so much a problem as an issue," senior Ben Shopsin said. "I think that students feel too comfortable that irrespective of the quality of the work they submit the grades they will receive will only be within a certain range."
Shopsin thought that the new A+ has "helped to bring the disparity between hard science majors and humanities majors in line. It's possible in the sciences to get straight As, whereas in the humanities it's impossible. Within our own context, it's helped to control [grade inflation] a little bit."
Senior John Bunt, a mechanical and aerospace engineering major, was more reluctant to say the altered A+ has been a success.
"I don't think it's having a huge effect, since not too many A-pluses were being handed out," he said. "It's not a big deal."
Bunt agreed that the lowered point value for the A+ would have greater effects on science majors. "It's possible to get, in theory, everything right in math or engineering," he said. "That's not necessarily possible in a humanities class."
Religion major Ted Brassfield attributed grade inflation to student strategizing rather than a decrease in standards. "Students are more interested in having higher grades so they choose courses that give out higher grades," he said. The modified A+ doesn't affect average students -- the average student doesn't get an A+."
Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel, who chaired the Faculty Committee of Examinations and Standing, refused to comment for this article. She did not respond to numerous telephone inquiries.
