LETTER: A story about grade inflation
Mike Obstgarten’s “Academic fraud: Grade inflation is a scourge that must be eradicated” (Nov. 23 commentary) reminded me of a midterm grade I received my first semester in college. It was an easy course, and I was doing well, so the C-plus was a surprise. I even confronted the professor, who explained that his midterm grades were meant to be “motivational.”
At least I knew that C’s were fairly common at the time (the 1960s). Eighteen years later, I became a professor and found myself giving well-deserved C’s every semester. Late in my career, a colleague handed over one of the courses required of our majors. He gave me several suggestions, adding “… as you give them their A.” I continued my usual grading policies and, sure enough, one of my student evaluations contained this statement: “Dr. Hinde should get with this department’s grading program.”
So Mr. Obstgarten’s — and Harvard’s — criticism this year of grade inflation interested me. The question: Will universities across the nation do anything about it? If not, why would they consider an applicant’s high school grades at all when they’re deciding who will be admitted? Even making them “just” the starting point in their evaluations (as Yale states) likely means they have a disproportionate effect on their decisions.
