Re: Grading policies committee launches student survey to help draft new grading policies
Grade inflation must be addressed, but I fear that the College believes combatting it is a race to the bottom that it needs to win. It doesn’t need to be.
There’s a very real possibility that the spring vote ends with the implementation of at least some deflationary measures. Dartmouth being one of the first universities to take action against grade inflation would be perfectly on theme for a college administration that has demonstrated its desire to frame itself as a leader in reforming American academia. College President Sian Leah Beilock has been featured front-and-center in the nation’s foremost newspapers, advertising the College’s SAT reinstatement and institutional restraint policies and advocating for the implementation of AI in the classroom. But when Harvard announced its punishing plan to quell grade inflation this May, Dartmouth’s administration had been beaten at its own game, and now, with its own upcoming vote, it seems to be playing catch-up in an attempt to get itself back into the spotlight.
If the College truly wants to be a leader in higher education, it needs to start by bringing other colleges together to discuss collective action against grade inflation. While every school starts from a different system, Dartmouth’s Ivy League peers Yale and Columbia have already expressed interest in exploring policies that can level the playing field, but their respective faculty are reluctant exactly because of the nationwide expectation for inflated grades. The College has the opportunity to break this expectation by leading collective action to implement policies like soft target medians, allowing Dartmouth to still collect the brownie points it’s looking for while also allowing graduates from every college to be judged against a fairer metric. Unilateral action unmoored from the rest of higher education, meanwhile, wouldn’t put a dent in systemic grade inflation seen nationwide. Rather, it would sacrifice Dartmouth students’ resumes to get the College a few more features in The New York Times.
Opinion articles represent the views of their author(s), which are not necessarily those of The Dartmouth.
