Word: gradinger
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
The effort to curb grade inflation gained sweeping momentum this past November, a month after a feature in the Boston Globe called Harvard’s grading practices “the laughing stock of the Ivy League.”
By reserving honors for, at most, the top 60 percent of students, switching to a 4.0 grading scale and making a formal commitment to better regulate and inform professors about their grading habits, they may have muted those critics who questioned the distinction of a Harvard degree.
The Educational Policy Committee (EPC), a Faculty committee that advises the Dean of the Faculty on issues of undergraduate education, began its most recent review of Harvard’s grading procedures last spring.
But discussions began in earnest in November, when Pedersen sent a comprehensive report of grading practices from the past 16 years to all Faculty, requesting that they discuss them within their departments and submit a review of their department’s procedures by Feb. 1.
The College also wrestled with the issue of grade inflation in 1977, although many College officials at the time considered “grade inequity,” in which grading policies varied among professors, to be the real threat.