When the University leadership decided it was time to combat the problem of grade inflation, it faced a fundamental problem: nobody wanted to take the leap first. The solution, administrators and some department chairs reasoned, had to be collective action.
"Because no single department has any incentive to act unilaterally to address grade inflation, the chairs reasoned, the provision of a University-wide grading standard that all departments must observe will make it possible for all departments to cooperate," Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel wrote in the summer 2004 edition of Princeton Parents News.
In April 2004, the faculty voted by a two-to-one margin to implement a new policy under which A-range grades would be "less than 35 percent of the grades given in undergraduate courses and less than 55 percent of the grades given in junior and senior independent work." The policy states that grades, measured at the department level, should reach these targets when averaged over a three-year period, to account for annual fluctuations.
Though the standard is monitored by administrators University-wide, grade deflation is entirely "the faculty's policy," Malkiel said in a recent interview, adding that the administration is simply taking steps "on behalf of the faculty."
The actual implementation of the policy takes place at the departmental level: "Each department has a responsibility; each department is in the best position to assess how to enact the policy," Malkiel said. And that is where the complication remains.
"The English Department was strongly — though not unanimously — opposed to the new grading initiative," English Department Chair Claudia Johnson wrote in an email. "All of us agree that grading inflation exists and almost all of us regard it as a problem. But for us, the problem doesn't have the same status it does in other departments." A large majority — 74.5 percent — of faculty members agree that grade inflation is not equally problematic in individual departments, according to a survey of faculty conducted in early March by The Daily Princetonian. But on the question of whether the new grading policy effectively tackles those acknowledged differences, the faculty appears divided: 48.4 percent said the policy adequately takes into account differences between departments, while 25.8 percent said it doesn't and another 25.8 percent said they had no opinion. The survey, which had 162 respondents, has a margin of error of seven percentage points.
"Most of us would be thrilled if every student in our classes earned A's," Johnson explained. "Theoretically, there [is] no reason why every student couldn't write a stunningly brilliant term paper in an English Department seminar — though practically speaking, this would rarely occur. But in other disciplines we find faculty insisting that there can only be one 'best' student in any given glass. Naturally, our concerns about grade inflation are going to differ from faculty who hold this belief."
The view that the grading policy, if implemented strictly, represents a quota for A-range grades was contrasted by another department chair in the Humanities, religion chair Martha Himmelfarb.
"My view is that it's not about quotas. We're all saying that despite the excellence of Princeton students, if we establish rigorous standards and have a better way of thinking of an A that means a student has done extremely excellent work, one-half of students won't get A's year in and year out," Himmelfarb, a member of the faculty Committee on Grading, said.
"In a typical class of 25-30 students, only around one-third generally do truly excellent work," she added. "If one-half of students consistently get A's, the standard isn't high enough. 35 percent isn't a quota, but a way to give grades that reflects the rigor of coursework and high standards."
Fast results
Without question, the policy since its implementation in September 2004 has produced remarkable and immediate results. A-range grades in the humanities, social sciences and engineering departments have fallen sharply toward the targeted range, though most departments still remain above the goal.
When the faculty voted in favor of the policy in April 2004, the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing expected that full compliance would be phased in over the course of three academic years, after which the faculty would reexamine the policy's guidelines and implementation.
But results favorable to those seeking to reverse grade inflation came sooner than expected. "After so many years of steady grade inflation, we have actually been able to move the needle in the other direction, in a remarkably short amount of time," the September report said. "If each division succeeds in making as much progress this coming year as it did last year, we will have achieved our goal."
According to University statistics, humanities departments, which were once awarding more than 60 percent of their students A-range grades, have seen the greatest drop in grades since the institution of the policy.
"Grade deflation was more of a change in outlook for us. It's harder to differentiate between a B+ and an Aon papers than when you have an objective grade, like 87 in front of you," Himmelfarb said. "Humanities had the biggest distance to go." A-range grades awarded in the humanities remain at about 45 percent, and Himmelfarb admitted that in terms of approaching the target level, her department has not been "terribly successful."
She added, however, that "it's the beginning of the process, and I think we're still building momentum. We're at a better place than we were before we produced department standards."
Music chair Scott Burnham agreed, describing ongoing conversations in his department about the policy's implementation. "After some initial discontent, there was general agreement that it was useful to think more carefully and consistently about our grading practices."
In the face of these results, however, some departments and professors oppose the policy, or have expressed concerns about it, due a fear of ramifications for junior faculty if targets are not met.
Two untenured faculty members, one in the humanities and another in the social sciences, spoke of their concerns after being granted anonymity out of concern that public criticism of the grade inflation might hurt their eventual tenure bids.
"It's tough in a system which is so inflated, from the recentered SAT to the grades at almost every high school and college, to be the one who gives out B's for work that students have been trained to believe they deserve an A for, especially taking into account the desire I and at least some other faculty members have to be liked and respected by students," the humanities professor said. "It's hard to grade in a more deflationary way without a policy like Princeton's intact just because, at least for people like me, there's the worry of tenure."
The social sciences faculty member said that A's had constituted "a bit less than half" of the grades he had given at Princeton before the grade inflation policy went into place. As an untenured faculty member, he said his department has pressured him to stay strictly below the 35 percent level of A's even as some senior members of his department have continued to give out more than the target.
"In the constant juggling act of being tenure-track, it's difficult not to follow the instructions of people who might determine whether or not you are going to get this professional security but at the same time worry about being too soft or too yielding," he said. "For now, at least, I'm taking the path of least resistance, which has been giving out about a third A's and leaving a little room to make up for the departmental slack of people whose jobs are secure."
Sciences in unique position
While the humanities, social sciences and engineering divisions still have room to go before A-range grades will drop to the 35-percent target for coursework, the natural sciences divisions face a different problem: most needed to award more A's.
Molecular biology chair Lynn Enquist, whose department was already at the target level, explained that his department had identified the problem of inflation earlier and had taken steps to combat it.
"Several years before the University policy was implemented, we had recognized this problem, had evaluated our practices and had set goals very similar to those enacted by the University," Enquist, another member of the Committee on Grading, said. "We are pleased that the University policy is having the effect of leveling the grading playing field between departments."
Indeed, for department chairs in the natural sciences, the policy's great strength is its ability to level the field across the University. Astrophysics chair Scott Tremaine offered an example of a freshman considering majors after an introductory natural science class.
"If a freshman got a B in introductory physics — which is a very respectable grade — but got an A in another class that's not in the sciences, he might think that he's not cut out to be a physicist and major in a different department. It would be unfortunate to make his decision based just on that," Tremaine said, adding that "we see a large shift away from the sciences in people who originally put down their intent to major in one of them on their [admission] application."
It remains to be seen if the policy will result in a redistribution of majors.
— Jennifer Epstein contributed to this article.
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