For the first time in Dartmouth history, professors now award more A and A-minus grades than all other grades combined.
Think about that for a minute. According to the 2009-2010 Report on Grades and Related Matters, an internal College report compiled by the Registrar that I obtained, 55 percent of all course grades that Dartmouth students receive are A minuses or above. It's a staggering statistic, one that shows us just how bad grade inflation has gotten. It also shows the risk we take that soon (if not already) the College's grades will be essentially meaningless.
Since the 1970s, when Dartmouth switched from a 5-point GPA system to a 4-point system (a change made in part to combat grade inflation), the average grades have risen steadily. Even though the standards are not uniform across departments, the average grades for all three academic divisions have gone up at almost exactly the same rate. According to the Registrar's report, in the 1987-1988 school year the humanities gave out an average 3.29 GPA, the sciences averaged 3.04, and the social sciences awarded a 3.11 on average. By last year, those numbers had shot up to 3.55, 3.27, and 3.35, respectively.
What happens when grades jump up by almost a quarter of a point in just two decades? They become worthless. Just look at the A grade, in theory only awarded for excellent or exceptional student work. Twenty years ago the top grade was only given to a select few, less than one-fifth of students. Today, an A is not only the highest grade awarded, but also the most popular almost a third of grades given out in the last academic year were A, according to the Registrar's report.
The causes behind this massive inflation are varied. Students, who scored well throughout high school, share some of the blame for not accepting lower grades upon reaching college. Professors and departments are under constant pressure to keep enrollments high, and raising grades is one way to do so. And of course, when one department raises grades, an upward pull is applied on everyone else, lest they get left behind. Once grades have risen, it's next to impossible to get them back down.
Ultimately, grades are supposed to be educational. They tell you what you're good at, what you're not, what you need to work on and how far you have to go. When everyone gets an A, those teaching aspects of grading fall away, along with any student motivation to work hard. After all, if your class median is an A-minus or above (a situation that describes the majority of classes at Dartmouth over the last four years), why would you push yourself to achieve? You can already get a top grade for doing only average work.
At least the College seems to be aware of the problem. The Committee on Instruction has recently re-started an investigation into grade inflation and possible institutional remedies. However, it's unclear whether there is enough support among the general faculty to enact any kind of new policy.
Some solutions do exist, ranging from the basic to the comprehensive. To start, the faculty need to have more conversations about grading policies. The College does provide explicit language in the undergraduate degree regulations that explains the expectations for each letter grade. Within and between departments, professors should be discussing how these rules apply and whether they are being issued fairly.
The faculty and administration should also have serious discussions about implementing a similar system to the one Princeton University adopted in 2004. Princeton's policy established grading expectations that provide a common standard for every department and program. There are no limits on grades, just a target that A's account for less than 35 percent of grades given in most undergraduate courses. The system provides flexibility for professors and students as well as a shared benchmark for keeping grades useful. Over the last few years, the average GPA at Princeton has actually decreased, with no detrimental effects to students' post-college success finding jobs or applying to graduate and professional schools, according to Princeton's Faculty Committee on Grading.
Ultimately, such a College-wide policy may be the only way to combat the steady climb of grades. We must remember the educational purposes behind grades and take steps to protect them now. Otherwise, we'll wake up in a few years and it won't just be 55 percent of students getting A's and A-minuses. It'll be everyone.
