Making the Grade
When University politics professor Robert George started the notoriously difficult course, POL 315: Constitutional Interpretation, last semester, he issued a warning to his students: "I grade according to a rigorous standard."And George ? a staunch opponent of grade inflation and grade compression ? did not waver from this commitment, to many students' displeasure."I spent four times the amount of time studying for the course, but only received half the grade as any of my courses last semester," recalled John Ophardt '03, one of 73 students in George's course last semester.Studies, like the one done at Princeton in 1998, have shown that grade inflation and grade compression have persisted at universities during the last 30 years.




