Abolish Grades, Part 1

I had a student a few years ago who came to me either before or after class, I forget, but I remember what he asked.

“I need an A, Dr. Clayton,” Student X asked. I don’t usually use titles in my little column in this wonderful Northport Gazette, but I just want to be accurate.

“You need an A?” I asked in return.

“Yes, I know I’ve been absent a bit, but I’ve got a job” and I don’t remember the rest of rest of the excuse, let’s just say yada, yada, yada.

I was reminded of this little exchange a few weeks ago while reading a piece in the Wall Street Journal entitled “College Grades Have Become a Charade. It is Time to Abolish Them.” Since I taught in universities for almost half century I kind of developed a stake in institutions of higher education, teaching, researching, and, of course, grading.

I’ll return to Student X later.

The author of “College Grades,” is Yascha Mounk. You can type his name in any browser and read more about him.

He wrote a superb essay based on some solid research and thinking. The best thing about it is something that he doesn’t mention specifically, but here it is. If you support downplaying or getting rid of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs across higher education, and the country itself, like industry and politics, read on. This essay explores the roots and results of DEI, and you will be astonished at its accuracy.

“Grade inflation at American universities is out of control. The statistics speak for themselves. In 1950, the average GPA at Harvard was estimated at 2.6 out of 4. By 2003, it had risen to 3.4. Today, it stands at 3.8,” Mounk wrote.

“At Yale, for example, 80% of grades awarded in 2023 were As or A minuses…Across all four-year colleges in the United States, the most commonly awarded grade is now an A.” Or put in a countrywide context, “for the most part, the grading scheme at many institutions has effectively become useless. An A has stopped being a mark of special academic achievement.”

A friend of ours has a son who finished recently with straight As at Alabama. His mom bragged on him. So what I thought. So have at least 80% of all students. It reminded me of being in the service. Just because you answered muster didn’t mean a thing, other than you were there.

And Mounk continued, “If everyone outside hardcore [science, technology] engineering, math, or pre-med courses [STEM courses] can easily get an A, the whole system becomes vacuous. It fails to make distinctions between different levels of achievement or to motivate students to work hard on their academic pursuits.”

He added, “All the while, it allows students to pretend—to themselves as well as to others (like moms and dads)—that they are performing exceptionally well.”

If it were not obvious, Mounk adds that “all of this contributes to the strikingly poor record American colleges have at actually educating their students.”

The time the average full-time college student spends studying halved in the five decades after 1960, falling to about a dozen hours a week. A clear majority of college students have shown no significant progress on tests of critical thinking, complex reasoning, and writing,” with about half failing to make any improvements at all in their first two years of higher education.

Mounk adds a joke about the old Soviet Union. A worker says “We pretend to work, and they pretend to pay us.” American universities now work in a similar fashion: Students pretend to do their work, and academics pretend to grade them, ergo my student requesting his A at the beginning of this essay.

Mounk continues, “And so universities have come to see students as prized customers whose demands—from lavish dorms and gyms to teachers who don’t unduly interfere with their extracurricular commitments and busy social lives—better be heeded.”

Mounk’s conclusion: “It’s high time for a radical reboot of a broken system.” Then he addresses the causes.

Tuition fees are higher than ever. Those of you reading this who have kids in colleges and universities know precisely what we are writing about here.

Mounk continues, “And so universities have come to see students as prized customers whose demands—from lavish dorms and gyms to teachers who don’t unduly interfere with their extracurricular commitments and busy social lives—better be heeded.”

Mounk focuses on merit as the standard for grades and writes “when people debate the utility of grades, they mostly tend to focus on their signaling function to outsiders. Selection committees need to pick who wins a prestigious fellowship. Employers need to pick which applicant to invite for a job interview. Grades give them access to the unvarnished judgment of multiple professionals who have closely observed the candidate’s work,” and Mounk concludes, “this makes meaningful grades a key component of a meritocratic society.”

We continue next week to some recommendations in this area. If you are a contributor to grade inflation, at whatever level of university teaching or administration, you may be interested.