Princeton University's adoption of a new grading policy to reduce grade inflation by limiting the number of A's given to students has led some Ivy League schools to consider implementing a similar policy. AU faculty members said grade inflation is a problem at AU, but they do not have or plan to use a similar grade deflation policy.
Grade inflation refers to the steady increase of college grade-point averages over time, Duke University professor Stuart Roistaczer told USA Today.
Limiting the number of A's given out may not be the solution to grade inflation, said Rose Ann Robertson, the associate dean for Student and Academic Affairs in the School of Communication at AU.
Robertson said part of the grade inflation problem is students' expectations from a class and the belief that B's and C's are not good grades.
"I think that grade inflation is a real problem and it's out of control on all levels," she said. "But I don't think that mandating the number of A's it the right thing to do."
Princeton's faculty adopted the new grading policy in April 2004, limiting the number of A's given to students in an undergraduate course to less than 35 percent of the total course grades. In addition, A's should make up less than 55 percent of the grades given in junior and senior independent work, according to Princeton's overview of the new grading policy on its Web site.
"At a school like Princeton, everyone is intelligent," said Kelly McCormick, a senior at Princeton. "It's unfair to put a limit on how many A's a number of people in a class can get if everyone is working just as hard."
These limitations on high grades have deterred students at Princeton from taking classes that are perceived as being difficult, USA Today reported.
"It's kind of sad because the last two years, I've been kind of weary of classes that would seem more challenging," McCormick said. "Even if they're interesting to me, I stay away from them."
McCormick said she is not going stress over the policy because she has dealt with it for so long, but said the new policy has had a negative effect on her education.
"I'm not getting as much out of the Princeton education if I'm choosing not to take some of the classes that are interesting to me because I'm afraid of the grade deflation," McCormick said.
According to Princeton administrators, this policy has improved the quality of academics at Princeton.
The number of A's awarded in undergraduate courses in Princeton's 2004-2005 school year, the first year under the new policy, accounted for 40.9 percent of the total grades. This number was a 5.1 percent drop from the previous year, according to a press release from the Faculty Committee on Grading. This faculty created committee assesses the progress of the new grading policy and advises ways of making further progress, according to Princeton's Web site.
"We are impressed by the seriousness with which members of the faculty have taken on the challenge of bringing grades under better control," the press release said. "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 period of time."
Haig Mardirosian, dean of Academic Affairs at AU, said AU has never thought of using a grading limit to fix what the school perceives to be a problem with grades.
"As far as I know, I don't believe any department has instituted any kind of quota," he said. "Putting a limit on grades is akin to saying that excellence is limited."
Kim Bailey, a sophomore in the School of Public Affairs, said she thinks students at AU would actively protest that kind of policy simply because it is a very active school.
Lydnsey Gibson, a sophomore in SPA, said such policy would cause her to transfer to another school. Gibson also said she would not like having teachers grade her papers against other students and this would probably discourage her from working hard in her classes.
"I guess on one hand you're comparing students against each other," Paco Cantu, a junior in the School of International Service, said. "What if they're all really brilliant? What if eight out of 10 kids deserve A's"
