Why anti-grade-inflation professors are wrong

Grade inflation has got to stop — but so do the professors who try to reverse it single-handedly.

Don't get me wrong: I'm not advocating that professors should give students grades they don't deserve. The question is simply what standard for grading should be used. Of course, grading will always vary from professor to professor — that's inevitable and good. It's good because students can learn a great deal from the academic preferences of different professors.

What I'm opposed to is the bloc of Princeton professors who have made it their mission to single-handedly reverse grade inflation. Grade inflation is a problem and should be addressed. In case that slipped by, let me repeat: Grade inflation is a problem and should be addressed. But it should be addressed by the entire University and not just in selected courses that unfairly put individual students at a disadvantage among their peers.

It is one thing to give students bad grades because those students fail to meet the accepted standards at their university. It is quite another to give students bad grades because those students fail to meet standards that are determined by different professors' ideas of what a university's standards should be or used to be.

First, it's counterproductive to single-handedly take on grade inflation. Many bright and promising students pass up interesting courses each year because they are not willing to submit their GPAs to a professor on a mission. These courses would benefit by including — and not scaring away — potentially excellent participants.

Second, when professors give students bad grades according to their own interpretations of University standards, they diminish the relative consistency in grading that is necessary at any university. Students need relatively consistent measurements of their work so they know what's wrong with their work and where they need to improve.

When a student who normally receives As according to accepted university standards gets a C in a course taught by a professor who doesn't accept those standards, how should she judge her own work?

Students know grade inflation is rampant when they enter Princeton and through each stage of the University. Grade inflation is the norm. It is expected, and it represents the standard according to which both professors and students judge the quality of academic work at Princeton and other Ivy-League schools.

Professors who oppose grade-inflation are right. And I admire the vocal defense of their unpopular position. Professors who try to reverse grade inflation usually do so for one overriding reason: They believe giving tough grades encourages students to work harder.

Tough grading can be good. But tough grading according to the interpretive standards of individual professors only confuses students about the quality of their work. When Princeton stops grade inflation and professors agree to a consistent standard of grading, everyone will benefit. The author can be reached at The Newsroom.