Engaged in an ambitious effort to cut down on grade inflation, Princeton University managed to reduce the number of A's awarded during the 2004-2005 school year to 41 percent, down five points from the year before. The school hopes to ultimately reduce the number of A's to 35 percent.
"I think the faculty is proud of how much we've accomplished," said Princeton spokesperson Cass Cliatt. "We're trying to change a culture, and cultural change is difficult to achieve."
Cliatt said the school is trying to reverse a drastic escalation in the number of A's awarded that took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Before implementing the policy in April 2004, Princeton conducted a review that found that 45 percent to 55 percent of grades awarded at peer institutions were A's, Cliatt said.
At Brown the figure was 46.7 percent in the 2004-2005 school year, compared to 39.2 percent the year before, according to the Office of Institutional Research.
"But the understanding is that A's are supposed to represent exceptional work," Cliatt said.
Some students at Princeton are concerned about the policy, including senior Leslie-Bernard Joseph, president of the Under-graduate Student Government. "People have had their work graded down because of the guidelines, even though they're only supposed to be guidelines," Joseph told the New York Times. "We have a lot of anecdotal evidence about this."
"I think there is a fair degree of opposition to the inflation policy," said Dan-El Padilla, a Princeton senior. "It may have less to do with the inflation policy per se and more with some of the related policies." He explained that students are now ranked by quintile, and this information appears on their academic record alongside their grade-point average. "I think that's the salient issue right now," he said.
Prior to the policy's adoption, Padilla met with Nancy Malkiel, a dean of the college and a primary author of the policy. At the time, he was concerned about the policy's effect on the humanities. "I thought it would be worthwhile to look into ways to address the issue without unilaterally stipulating that these percentages hold for all departments at all times," he said. He thinks Malkiel is receptive to student concerns, but said he wasn't "quite sure whether that receptivity will translate into anything."
But not all students have concerns. "I honestly don't know anyone that makes a big deal out of it," said Nandita Gupta, a Princeton senior. "I think we were afraid that it might turn catty and competitive. ... One thing that I am pleased to realize is that that's not true at all."
"I don't think it's affected very many people negatively," said Kelly Sanabria, another senior. She explained that a lot of departments already used percentage systems in grading, so students in some departments saw little to no change.
The vast majority of the faculty support the plan - two-thirds voted in favor of it in 2004. "We are all very proud of our faculty for committing themselves to this very bold initiative. And we were delighted with the progress we have made," T. Kyle Vanderlick, a member of Princeton's Faculty Committee on Grading, told the New York Times.
In an interview with Inside Higher Ed, Malkiel said that "the issue here is how we do justice to our students in our capacity as educators, and we have a responsibility to show them the difference between their very best work and their good work."
However, some administrators at Brown disagree with Princeton's approach. Last semester, Associate Dean of the College and Dean for Science Programs David Targan told The Herald that administrators "want to make sure faculty have a lot of autonomy." A school-wide grading policy outlining what an A, B or C means would be antithetical to Brown's New Curriculum, he said.
While 46.7 percent of all the grades Brown awarded in the 2004-2005 school year were A's. 24 percent were B's, 4.6 percent were C's, 2.6 percent NC's and 21.3 percent were S's, according to figures from the Office of Institutional Research.
