USG sends professors letter on grading

announced in a Sunday evening e-mail

The letter describes the concern among students that they are being unfairly graded by professors enforcing grading quotas.

“The student body is committed to holding itself to the high expectations set forth by the grading policy. Students get the wrong impression, however, when professors begin the semester by telling students, ‘No matter what happens, only four of you will get A’s in this course,’ or ‘You should know up front that only 35 percent of you can get A grades,’ ” the letter said. “Grading practices such as these seem to be at odds with the spirit of the grading policy. Moreover, they stifle intellectual curiosity and exchange among students.”

On April 26, 2004, the University faculty voted 156-84 to institute its new grading policy in an effort to curb rising grades. Since then, the University has seen a steady decline in the percentage of A-level grades awarded to undergraduates. Last week, Malkiel announced that only 39.7 percent of undergraduate grades given last year were in the A-range, marking the first time this statistic fell below what Malkiel called the “symbolic barrier” of 40 percent.

Between 2005 and 2008, A grades comprised 40.4 percent of all final undergraduate course grades, down from 47 percent in the 2001 to 2004 period before the grading policy was enacted.

Though the success of the policy has contributed to its unpopularity among students, Malkiel has stood resolutely behind it. So, too, have the nearly two-thirds of the faculty who voted for the policy. According to a 2006 survey by The Daily Princetonian, 94.5 percent of the faculty who voted for the grading policy in 2004 said they would have voted for it again, while 82 percent of those who voted against the policy said they would do so again.

The recent letter to the faculty urged professors to be careful in their implementation of the policy and also encouraged them to provide greater feedback for students.

“If students are thrown into a competition with their classmates for the handful of A’s that professors are able to give, they will try to stay ahead of their fellow students rather than learning from them and sharing ideas with them in the collective pursuit of knowledge,” the USG letter explained. “No good can come of making grading a zero-sum game in which students hesitate to clarify a concept for a fellow student because it might cost them a good grade.”