<p>Link to grade inflation at Harvard...I am looking for infromation on grade inflation in general and at any school ..if you have information send it in please.....</p>
<p>tommybill - Can you provide some context for your request? For example, are you looking at changes in professor's attitudes toward grading? How the use of Adjuncts and TA's has affected grading? Perhaps how efforts to build endowments have affected how future contributors (i.e., current students) are treated? My university Organic Chemistry teacher was blunt: "I aim for an average score of 50 on exams to obtain maximum dispersion, and then curve the results with no more than 10% A's." At least he gave partial credit!</p>
<p>Exactly 50% of the students will be in the bottom half of their class. There has been absolutely no change in this over time, even though now all students are above average. What else is there that one needs to know?</p>
<p>Frankly, I am shocked at the super high GPAs people are reporting on CC; and then some of the superhigh GPA people have rather average SAT scores. Honestly, a 4.3 GPA and 570 SATs looks like grade inflation to me.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Any means of reducing grades would unnecessarily add tension to Harvard’s already hyper-competitive environment. Many classes foster a culture of antagonism by basing the standard of grading on the collective student average; the key to great grades in such classes is not working hard, but working harder than one’s classmates. This discourages cooperation. When students are measured against an absolute standard, which is often set very high, they are encouraged to work collaboratively and think creatively, better serving the overall end of education.
[/quote]
There are top schools where grades are not quite as inflated as Harvard's where one does not see this student dynamic occurring.</p>
<p>"This discourages cooperation."</p>
<p>They could get rid of grades altogether, or get rid of all public grades (as per Reed), but they CHOOSE not to. The whole idea is to cull. </p>
<p>Cooperation is overrated. In grade school, I learned it was called "cheating".</p>