Correction appended
Administrators and a USG officer have challenged USG president Alex Lenahan '07's assertion that grade inflation may not have existed at the University.
In an email sent to the student body last Wednesday, Lenahan cited a Princeton Alumni Weekly article reporting that each class's percentage of academic 1's and 2's — the Admission Office's designation for the academically strongest applicants — has been on the rise since 1993. The increasing quality of students, he wrote, was responsible for rising GPAs — not grade inflation.
But in interviews this weekend, administrators dismissed Lenahan's argument, downplaying the significance of the academic ratings and suggesting that high school grade inflation may explain the increase in 1's and 2's.
"I appreciate the temptation to argue ... that undergraduates today come to college better prepared academically than any previous generations of Princetonians — and, therefore, deserve to be graded accordingly," Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel said in an email. "I do not believe, however, that the facts support such reasoning."
She cited the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing's February 1998 study on grade inflation, a report released the same year as the separate Report of the Undergraduate Admission Study Group, which Lenahan based his argument on.
"We looked carefully at the objective indices ... that might lend credence to the view that Princeton undergraduates are somewhat abler, or better prepared, than they used to be," the report's authors of the inflation study wrote, "but we found no compelling evidence to justify the extent of the grade inflation and grade compression demonstrated in our data."
The admission study group report, however, concluded that the number of academic heavyweights was rising as a percentage of the undergraduate student body: "Academic 1's and 2's comprised 51.2 percent of the Class of 1993, 68 percent of the Class of 2001, and 72.2 percent of the Class of 2002."
But Malkiel said that the Admission Office's academic ratings — based on high school grades, class rank and SAT scores — aren't an ironclad measure of academic quality. "The difference between a 1 and a 2, or a 2 and a 3, is actually very small," she said.
Lenahan took issue with that reasoning as well. "The admissions department wouldn't make a meaningless system of distinguishing students," he said.
Indeed, in March 2004, in an interview with The Daily Princetonian after Early Decision acceptances were made for the Class of 2008, Dean of Admission Janet Rapeleye touted the number of applicants who were academic 1's. "I can honestly tell you that we have more academic 1's in the pool than we had last year," she said.
"This group coming through, the academic quality is superb and we'll have a very hard time choosing among these candidates," Rapeleye added.
President Tilghman attributed at least part of the apparent increase in students' academic quality to high school grade inflation.
"I would simply point out that grade inflation in the 90's was not restricted to universities and colleges," Tilghman said in an email. "I don't believe the overall quality of the class has increased as rapidly as the [Daily Princetonian] article [on Lenahan's claims] suggests."
Even if Princeton students were becoming academically stronger, Malkiel added, the University has "the responsibility to hold [students] to higher standards."
"I do still stand behind the grading policy adopted by the faculty in April 2004," said Malkiel, who spearheaded the effort to enact the guidelines.
She added that students might be less concerned with the policy if they knew more about it.
"There is a temptation for faculty to use the policy as a crutch in explaining their grades, when the intention is to set a goal, with an 'elastic clause' to allow discretion," she said. "The bottom line is to grade based on a student's performance."
USG academics chair Caitlin Sullivan '07 has also disagreed with Lenahan's interpretation. Though she said his data were correct, she argued that they failed to support his conclusion.
"Even if the number of academic 1's and 2's is rising, I don't see that as justification for instituting a policy that gives excess numbers of A's," Sullivan said in an interview yesterday. But she added that she and Lenahan are both committed to ensuring the policy is implemented fairly.
Lenahan defended his assertion, disagreeing with Sullivan's argument that the policy is justified because it curbs excessively lenient grading in some departments.
"If the policy is really aimed at those departments that are way over the top ... the policy could have been designed to address specifically those departments that were outliers," he said.
Lenahan and Sullivan, however, agreed that faculty members and administrators still need to make progress toward properly implementing the policy.
"[Preceptors] need to know that they don't have to assign 'x' number of A grades to a certain precept," Lenahan said.
He also emphasized the need for continuing discussion among students, professors and administrators. During Sunday's USG meeting, he said he sent the results of the grade deflation survey to Malkiel before he distributed them to the student body. As of the meeting, Lenahan had not received a response from Nassau Hall.
"Perhaps silence is their answer," USG Vice President Rob Biederman '08 said.
Correction
The original version of this article failed to distinguish between the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing's February 1998 study on grade inflation, which Dean of the College Nancy Malkiel cited, and the Report of the Undergraduate Admission Study Group, also released in 1998, which USG president Alex Lenahan '07 cited.Editor' note
The online version of this article includes additional information not included in the print version.Read More
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