Eric Levenson: (2013)
The End of Princeton’s Grade Deflation Experiment?
Nine years ago, Princeton University hoped to lead the fight against constantly growing GPAs with a policy of “grade deflation,” which set a suggested cap on the number of A’s in a class. The plan didn’t catch on, and now Princeton appears to be backtracking.
Nine years ago, Princeton University hoped to lead the fight against constantly growing GPAs with a policy of “grade deflation,” which set a suggested cap on the number of A’s in a class. The plan didn’t catch on, and now Princeton appears to be backtracking.
Newly initiated Princeton President Chris Eisgruber announced today that the Ivy League university would create a faculty committee to review the school’s grade deflation policy, in which faculty are advised to cap A grades at 35 percent of students. Despite touting its effects on stabilizing grading, Eisgruber noted some of the policy’s issues in a statement. “Yet concerns persist that the grading policy may have had unintended impacts upon the undergraduate academic experience that are not consistent with our broader educational goals,” he wrote. In addition, he questioned some of the central ideas of the policy, such as whether “numerical targets” were necessary to achieving better feedback on student work.
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