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Schools can institute an ‘adjusted GPA’ to devalue A’s when they are too numerous.
Grade inflation is a tough problem to solve. Harvard recently announced a cap on A’s in any given class, but it doesn’t address lower grades, including A-minuses, and such measures tend to provoke faculty resistance. Dartmouth has reported median grades since 1994, and it still experienced grade inflation. There’s a way to address the grading system directly while preserving faculty autonomy: by adding an “inflation-adjusted GPA” on student transcripts.
A student’s transcript would show two overall grade-point averages. Next to the traditional GPA will appear a second number that adjusts course grades based on the median grade in each class. A student who earns an A in a course where the median grade is also an A would receive less of a boost than one who earns an A in a tougher course. If a student filled his schedule with easy-A classes, his transcript might show a traditional GPA of 4.0 and an adjusted GPA of 2.7. This large difference communicates that the student’s traditional GPA overstates his academic performance.
The risk of seeing such stark GPA discrepancies on transcripts would make it untenable for students to demand higher grades. Students would know that pressuring professors for grades they don’t deserve could backfire. High-achieving students would also have an incentive to avoid overly lenient classes or even encourage professors to grade more rigorously.
Continue reading the entire piece here at The Wall Street Journal (paywall)
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Neetu Arnold is a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute. Daniel Buck is a research fellow and the director of the Conservative Education Reform Network at the American Enterprise Institute.