Sunday, June 05, 2005

Grade Inflation

There was a fascinating article in the Washington Post today that I thought everyone might be interested in reading. It's located here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/
The most recent data on grade inflation shows a continuing trend:
National Trends in Grade Inflation, American Colleges and Universities
The average grade given at private schools is now a 3.26 - more a B than a B. A full 50% of the grades given at Harvard this year were 'A's (according to the article)!
Aside from the obvious relevance to your lives - I would like to know what you think about the ethics of grade inflation. After all, many of my students at Wash U argued that they needed grade inflation in order to compete with students from other institutions for graduate school placement. On the other hand, doesn't grade inflation cheapen the achievement of those who actually earned an 'A'? What is to be done?

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