Grade deflation

Read the Globe article on grade deflation.

Problems

1. Is grade inflation really a problem? In the good old days, students received grades of A,B,C,D,F (or A,B,C,D,E, depending on where you grew up.) Nowadays the corresponding grades at Dartmouth might be something like A+ for an old A, A or A- for B, B+ or B for C, C+ or C for D, and C- for F. So what? What difference does this change of scale make, and to whom?

2. In what sense has Stanford reinstated the grade of F?

3. One aspect of the reforms at Stanford that is not brought out in this article is that students will no longer be able to withdraw from a course just before the final exam. What effects might the change have? Do you think this change is a good idea?

4. What do you think of Dartmouth's proposal to report the median grade? What concrete effects would you expect Dartmouth's new grading policy to have? Do you think this change is a good idea?

5. Give an example of a list of grades for a class where the median grade could be either B or D. What should the registrar report as the median grade in a case like this?

6. At the Dartmouth faculty meeting at which the new grading policy was adopted, there was some discussion of whether it would be better to report the average grade for the class, rather than the median grade. (Some observers noted that some usually voluble faculty members were uncharacteristically silent during this discussion, perhaps because they were not too clear about the difference between these two measures.) What difference do you think it would make? Which measure would be better? Which measure would appeal most to the best students? How about the worst students?

7. Discuss your own experiences with attempts to combat grade inflation.

8. What is to be done?