Grade Inflation?!
Over at the Crooked Timber blog, Henry has an interesting post up about grade inflation and compression.
As good, responsible new teachers, I’m sure you’re all opposed (on principle!) to the insidious evil that we call “grade inflation.” So was Henry. As he explains:
In the course of writing my own paper several things happened. I started off assuming (with no real evidence) that grade inflation was real and believing (for no real reasons) that it was bad; I discovered that there is no evidence of grade inflation (which doesn’t, of course, mean that it doesn’t exist) and that the reasons for thinking it would be bad if it did exist are pretty weak.
It just gets better and more interesting (and more provocative) from there. I highly encourage you to read it all. And check out the comments afterward, as well. They’re often excellent at CT.
One last meta-point: Henry brings up the related concept of grade compression — the notion that the range of grades becomes compressed from the 13 or so grades (A+ to F) we’re used to seeing to a much smaller scale of grades being given. I mention this because you’re in that boat now as grad students in the Humanities — the range of acceptable grades for you (and your peers across the country) is much smaller (A+ to B). B- is a serious sign of trouble in today’s grad-level academy, and C (acceptable in undergrad classes) is right out.
What do you think about all of this?