Princeton University Commencement Ceremony 2014
File photo: Princeton University Commencement Ceremony, on Tuesday June 3, 2014.
(Michael Mancuso/The Times)
PRINCETON—A faculty-led committee at Princeton University is recommending the school change its 10-year-old grading policy which caps the number of A's a department can give, a practice that critics have called "grade deflation."
Princeton University President Christopher Eisgruber appointed the nine-member committee in October to review grading guidelines adopted in April 2004 under the tenure of former university president Shirley Tilghman, who stepped down last year after 12 years in office.
The original policy recommended each department award no more than 35 percent of A-range grades for course work.
The committee is now urging the university to remove “numerical targets” from the policy and replace them with grading standards developed by each department.
The committee found grading targets “are too often misinterpreted as quotas” that “add a large element of stress to students’ lives, making them feel as though they are competing for a limited resource of A grades,” according to a news release announcing the committee’s recommendations today.
The committee's full report can be found here.
It suggested the dean of the college continue to monitor grades across departments and each department review its grading history on a regular basis to ensure consistency with whatever standards it adopts, the release said.
"It seems to us less important that the same percentage of students in every department receive A-range grades…than that there be a high correlation between the grades students receive and the evaluative rubrics in the specific courses they take,” the report said. “Departments should spend their time developing clear and meaningful evaluative rubrics for work within their disciplines rather than aligning grades to meet specific numerical targets.”
The committee also recommended the emphasis of the university's policies regarding assessment of student work should move away from grades, instead focusing on "quality of feedback." It also suggested a newly formed Council on Teaching and Learning be tasked with reviewing the grading policies, instead of the current committee.
Eisgruber threw his support behind the committee’s recommendations, saying in the release that he agrees “it is important to give students meaningful feedback and clear signals about the quality of their work, and that the numerical targets in our current policy were undermining our goals rather than advancing them.”
He called on the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing, which has jurisdiction over this area, to review the committee's report. If that committee agrees with the recommendations, it will bring the suggestions to university faculty for action, likely in October, the university said.
The committee, by reviewing the recent grading history at Princeton, found grades started declining in 2003, a year before the grading policy was enacted, in response to “greater awareness of grading issues among the faculty,” the release said.
Over the course of its work, the committee surveyed and met with administrators, faculty members and students, created a public comment website, consulted with officials at other institutions and analyzed existing data.
One anonymous student response included in the report claims a professor changed a student’s midterm exam grade from an A to a B+ because the current policy calls for it.
“The 91 was scratched out and replaced with an 88,” the student comment said. “When I asked my professor why he reduced my score, he told me that normally the paper would be an A but due to grade deflation, he was forced to lower several students’ grades to a B+.”
The committee did not find evidence that changing the policy would negatively impact students' ability to compete for graduate and professional school, postgraduate fellowships or employment positions, the release said.
“The best reasons to change Princeton's grading policy have more to do with psychological factors and campus atmosphere than with any tangible effects is has on the prospects of our students,” the report said.
Nicole Mulvaney may be reached at nmulvaney@njtimes.com. Follow her on Twitter @NicoleMulvaney. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.