Solutions have been thrown around for providing a quick-fix to grade inflation, and they all seem to hinge on a single premise-just give lower grades. Simple enough, eh? However, the very meaning of each letter grade has become so weighted with grim connotations that a single letter speaks volumes about a student's abilities.
Currently, more than 70 percent of students receive a B-plus or A-minus average. The bell curve as we know it has become the dog that is being wagged by a tail made up of a select few A and A-plus students. The very notion of grading has become much like those tire spikes at the rental car agency; once you go past a certain point, there's no turning back.
So, how can professors and institutions deflate grades to a more reasonable level (without shredding their tires)?
It might seem strange, but simply get rid of the letters. The connotation of the C as terrible and the B-plus as average is not going away anytime soon. So, as many a yellow-bellied warrior has discovered, if you can't beat 'em, run away from 'em.
Currently, the College employs a mystical 14-point grading scale, seemingly crafted to assert some sort of "big number superiority" over those measly four-point institutions. Maybe we're hoping that some dim-witted company executive will see a 3.9 average from one school and an 11 average from Amherst and get all giddy over the obviously far superior 11. Whatever the case may be, we can use this warped system to our advantage.
To fix grade inflation (or at least move the average to a more sane B rather than the current B-plus/A-minus) just move entirely to a 14-point system. Every paper, exam and transcript should receive only numbers-letters be damned. Human nature (and its love for round numbers) indicates that professors would be most apt to give a score of 10 on anything they consider to be average. As long as we could detach ourselves from converting that number immediately into a letter grade (our minds operate in simple, simple ways), we would have a curve on the 10, rather than the current mean of 11.5 that is being employed by our letter-loving friends. This would allow for more room above average to differentiate between quality work-currently, professors are forced to give any above average work an A or, in a few cases, an A-plus.
To take this argument to its extreme, a place perhaps a bit too eclectic for even my taste, introduce an entirely new scale that is more difficult to convert back to letters-for example, using the color spectrum. Just equip professors with a Crayola 64-pack (you know, the one with the sharpener in the back) and have them doodle at the top of every essay, problem set and exam. We could even have an exhibit of transcripts in the Mead.
Sure, this sounds absurd-and it would certainly cause problems over at Goldman Sachs as they scramble to determine whether to accept all of the aquamarines or the indigos or the chartreuses (whatever chartreuse is, exactly). However, it would be an opportunity to start over from scratch and reestablish a more equitable curve that allows for real differentiation at all of its levels rather than a dumping ground at the B-plus/A-minus level, where everyone starts to look the same.
If letter grades didn't mean so much more than the mere letter suggests, we'd easily be able to push the curve back and everyone would be happy. However, any movement pushing current 'B' students into the sea (no pun intended) would cause a violent mutiny at this and many other institutions. It's time to jump ship and find a new method for grading-God forbid we should be pioneers in the field.
Many fret that should Amherst try to fix grade inflation before the rest of the world, we will suddenly find ourselves jobless. That's simply not the case. Any time a transcript is sent out to a prospective employer, graduate school or internship, a breakdown of grades is attached. Any company looking to hire knows how to identify which students are stellar and which are average-they just look at the percentages along the curve. They know that our siblings at Swarthmore who have lower grades might very well show greater promise, simply by comparing them to their fellow classmates.
Obviously, switching to a number-based system is a plea that can only be satisfied by an institution-wide change. Sure, it sounds a bit outlandish, but so did peanut butter being mixed with chocolate before that crazy Reese fellow made the big discovery. At the very least, the College should make a concerted effort to explore alternatives-real alternatives.
Fixing grade inflation could be an enormous problem that we'll soon give up on, or it can be attainable. Maybe it's as easy as 1-2-3.