An A+ Solution to Grading at Harvard

"One danger with Harvard's proposal is that it violates the academic freedom of faculty to grade. Faculty should not be forced to either increase or decrease grades. Although grading is not as absolute as other forms of academic freedom in the classroom (students can appeal unfair grades), it's still an important authority. Once you limit one aspect of academic freedom, such as grading, it becomes easier to undermine other forms of academic freedom. Faculty should be wary of harming their own academic freedom."

"Arbitrarily imposing grade quotas is also a violation of the principle of academic merit. Harvard is proposing that even if a student's work objectively deserves an A, they will not receive one if too many other excellent students are in that particular class. In fact, you can imagine different sections of the same class taking the same test and students with identical results receiving different grades depending on the random allocation of good students in those classes."

"Grade inflation has been a campus controversy for many decades. It began to be noticed nationally with the Vietnam War draft, when college students were exempted, but a failing grade was seen as a possible death sentence overseas. Professors reacted with more generous grades, a trend that expanded with the vast growth in students going to college."

"Harvard faculty will vote May 12 through 19 on a proposal to limit A grades to 20 percent (plus 4) of the students in a class. Somehow, elite professors giving elite students high grades has become the great cultural crisis of our times. As one conservative writer put it, "Harvard has endured a dark night of the soul, including (among other troubles) facing down the consequences of grade inflation ...""

Harvard faculty will vote on a proposal to cap A grades at 20 percent plus 4 students per class. The proposal is criticized for violating faculty academic freedom by forcing instructors to raise or lower grades. Grading authority is described as an important form of academic freedom, even though students can appeal unfair grades. The quota is also criticized as violating academic merit because students who objectively earn an A may be denied one due to how many other strong students are in the same class. Identical test results could lead to different grades across sections based on random assignment of high-performing students. Grade inflation is described as a long-running campus controversy that became nationally visible during the Vietnam War draft era and expanded as college enrollment grew.

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