Harvard still home of easy A

2/15/2004

After Harvard College came under fire two years ago for its generous grading policies -- about half of all grades at Harvard are A or A-minus -- professors lashed themselves and launched new policies meant to toughen up the grading. So how tough is Harvard now? Not very. According to figures sent to the faculty last week, the percentage of A's and A-minuses awarded to students actually increased last year. Two years ago, 22 percent of grades were A's and 24.4 percent were A-minuses, but last year A's crept up slightly to 22.4 percent, and A-minuses to 25.4 percent. In a not-so-subtle reminder that the grading curve doesn't end at A-minus, Benedict Gross, dean of the college, wrote to professors that they should "make use of an adequate range of grades to differentiate among levels of good work."

Professor Harvey Mansfield, a longtime critic of grade inflation, said president Lawrence Summers and his administration are serious about the problem, but reluctant to tell professors what to do. "They don't want to blame people or accuse them of inflating their grades," Mansfield said. "That policy puts everything on willingness of faculty to cooperate, and these statistics are a sign they are not cooperating." Mansfield thinks Harvard needs to consider more stringent efforts, like listing the percentage of A's given in each course on students' transcripts, which would "give each professor's grades a kind of comparative value," Mansfield said.

Back to the E-Zine Archives | Main Menu