In Spotlight, Grades Dipped

Students eagerly logging on to check their fall semester grades may be disappointed if a historic downward trend in grade point averages revealed last week has continued into this academic year.

According to data Dean of Undergraduate Education Benedict H. Gross ’71 sent to the Faculty last week, grades fell during the 2001-2002 academic year, the second year of decline after sixteen years of increases.

Gross reported that last year’s mean grade was 12.58, down from 12.65 the year before. Both numbers correlate to just above a B-plus on Harvard’s 15 point scale.

The decline followed a year of intense scrutiny of Harvard’s grading trends in both the Faculty and the national media.

Gross attributed the dip in overall average to a reduction in the number of A-range grades given.

Last year 46.4 percent of all grades given were A’s. This percentage peaked in the 2000-2001 academic year at 48.4 percent.

While the numbers have only declined a few decimal points, Faculty members say the change is meaningful.

“In some ways it seems small, but since grades are compressed into such a small range, it may be significant,” said Gurney Professor of English Literature James Engell.

Professors said they are not surprised by the decline given the intense discussion over grade inflation that dominated the Faculty’s agenda last year.

These debates culminated last spring with the decision to switch to a 4.0 scale and to cap the number of students who receive honors at sixty percent.

These changes have yet to be implemented—the new grade scale will be adopted next fall and the new honors policy will first apply to the Class of 2005.

But professors said last year’s discussions have already led faculty members to tighten their grading practices.

“It is not legislation that moves the Faculty...it is the atmosphere raised by the issue,” said Roderick L. MacFarquhar, chair of the government department.

Gross said that he sent out the letter to continue conversations about grades begun under his predecessor Susan G. Pedersen ’81-’82.

And for the first time this semester, the registrar asked professors to list the total number of each grade given in addition to submitting individual grades for their students.

Gross said he hopes that taking this extra step will cause professors to become more aware of their grading habits.

But some professors said they do not think this new requirement is necessary.

“I’m not sending it back ... I won’t be intimidated,” said Bard Professor of History Mark A. Kishlansky.

Kishlansky said that breaking down the grades for his classes would not change his grading practices.

He said, however, that the tally may be helpful to professors teaching very large classes where the distribution might not be readily apparent.

But Engell said that increased analysis of grading practices can only be beneficial.

“[Professors] are just looking at a list of letters and names on a large single spaced sheet of paper,” he said. “Any information that the registrar can provide them is a good thing.”

And Engell said he hopes Gross will continue to show professors how their grading practices compare by releasing abridged versions of department-by-department reports that were submitted during Pedersen’s tenure.

As a member of the Education Policy Committee’s subcommittee on grade inflation, Engell read the reports last spring and said he feels their information would benefit the entire faculty.

“Grading practices should have some consistency and uniformity across the college,” he said.

Gross said his office is planning to distribute a booklet on good grading practices to the Faculty in the spring.

The Winter of Our Discontent

While the decline in GPA may seem small, it has created a ripple among both teachers and students alike.

“The TFs are on the front lines [and] they report in like mad,” Kishlansky said.

As one of three professors teaching History 10a: “Western Societies, Politics, and Cultures: From Antiquity to 1650” Kishlanksy said that he and his fellow professors met with their TFs weekly to monitor grading through common readings of papers and exams.

“We worked hard to smooth the grades among the sections,” he said. “We put a lot into the course and we wanted a lot back.”

Kishlansky said he felt that the slightly lower mean grade this year, around a B-plus, was the result of this increased attention.

And students in 10a said they felt the extra pressure.

“My TF told me that grading would be more difficult,” said Damien T. Wint ’05. “I got the sense that grading was a work in progress...and that they weren’t quite sure how to adjust the grades.”

TFs in other courses said they were also aware of attempts to strictly monitor grading practices this fall.

David L. Kaminsky, a first year TF for Lit. and Arts B-51: “First Nights: Five Performance Premiers” said that he felt strict pressure to keep the mean in his class at a B-plus.

“The professor told us they they breathe down his neck if the average gets too high,” he said.

But Shanthini Kasturi ’04, a student in “First Nights”, said she did not feel grading practices were unfair—despite students’ murmurs of grade deflation.

“I haven’t heard any specific news, but there have definitely been rumors that TFs and professors are not as willing to give you higher grades,” she said.

Kishlanksy too said that he has detected the heightened student concern—and it does not surprise him.

“[Students] didn’t get into Harvard by not caring about grades,” he said, “The idea that [they] get into Harvard and not care about grades is to erase their memory banks.”

And despite the recent decline in grades, Kishlansky said students have little to fear.

“I don’t see how they could much go down...we are not in the business of giving C’s,” he said.

—Staff writer Jessica E. Vascellaro can be reached at vascell@fas.harvard.edu.