"Dude, I did awfully." With exams, papers, and finals, Dartmouth students have many opportunities to do poorly. When we students fail, we get angry and our parents get frustrated.
But wait, some of the "awful" students among us are actually getting B's. According to most grade rubrics, a B is good, right?
At Dartmouth, however, a B can mean failure. Here, where the most recent median GPA (Spring 2007) was 3.23, a B implies that over half of your peers outperformed you. With 57 percent of course median grades in the A/A- range, a B seems terrible. In fact, no course (out of 414) last spring had a median grade lower than a B except History 32, "Asians in the Americas to 1905."
Originally, educational institutions used grades to evaluate student performance. In fact, the College's Organizations, Regulations and Courses handbook defines a B as "Good mastery of course material." But with grade inflation, professors like Dana Williams have admitted to the Dartmouth Alumni Magazine that "grades now have become practically meaningless".
Dartmouth students, Dartmouth faculty and employers all deserve a fairer grading policy.
In 1958, the average Dartmouth GPA was 2.2. By 1969 it had increased to 2.7 and by 1994 it reached 3.23. Similarly, at Williams College the average GPA increased from 2.53 in 1953 to 3.34 in 1994. Other colleges experienced similar trends, which are recorded at gradeinflation.com.
Both students and colleges are responsible for this upwards hike in grades.
Students enjoy getting higher grades. It helps them get into graduate schools and find jobs, satisfies their parents, and boosts their self-esteem. Many students who leave high school with a 4.0 GPA believe they are entitled to similar grades in college. But at Dartmouth, many of these top performers should accept being average. At Dartmouth, not everyone can be outstanding.
Colleges also enjoy giving their students higher grades. Harvard granted honors to 91 percent of its students in 2006 (Carnegie Foundation). Some schools use higher grades to prove admission of better students. Others use them to illustrate superior teaching methods. Professors use them as a means of improving course evaluations and avoiding student complaints. Most importantly, they enable students to find more prestigious jobs and graduate programs.
But the costs of such a system do not justify the benefits.
Grade inflation generates mediocrity by encouraging students to do less work. Why submit exceptional work when above-average work receives only a slightly lower grade? Why work harder than the median when the median is a B+? Professors such as Harvey Mansfield from Harvard's government department have already complained to the Chronicle of Higher Education that grade inflation produces absenteeism and laziness. "It is difficult for students to work hard, or for the professor to get them to work hard," he said, "when they know that their chances of getting an A or A- are 50-50."
Professors have a right to such complaints. Without a proper grading system they cannot demand quality work. They must award grades to students that do not deserve them. They must encourage students using alternative means. But shouldn't motivating Dartmouth students be easy?
Students also get hurt in the process. Without proper evaluation they cannot differentiate between good and bad work and cannot gauge improvement.
Admittedly, Dartmouth has tried to reduce grade inflation. Back in the 60's it temporarily changed from a 4-point to a 5-point system to shift the grade curve down. Nowadays, the college publishes the median grades of all classes.
But these efforts have not produced significant changes. GPAs remain high and many students still feel entitled to grades in the A range. The Dartmouth Alumni Magazine published a special on the topic in March 2004. in which, professors like Bruce Nelson lamented the student attitude that, "If I get a B+, you are screwing me."
One solution would be a forced curve. For example, at Harvard Business School the top 15-20 percent of every class receives "1s," the middle 70-75 percent receives "2s," and the bottom 10 percent receives "3s." But forced curves encourage competition and prevent fair evaluation.
A better solution would be to abandon the 5-letter scale for a percentage scale, which already exists in India, Mexico and Israel. Such a system is easy to calculate and enables fairer, more personal evaluations.
Regardless of which system the college picks, the status quo cannot be kept. With teachers, students, and employers getting hurt, ending grade inflation will be a win-win for everyone.
