I read that Princeton University is going to start a campaign against grade inflation by restricting the number of “A” grades that can be awarded. The UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall) has been doing something similar for years.  Having been on the faculty end of the demand for good grades, I sympathize with their predicament. 

I gave an exam to my business law class asking them to regurgitate the elements of a valid contract, and then to apply that to a hypothetical situation. Two or three people got “A” on the exam, the rest got an “F.” This happened even though I had reviewed the information with them the week before and warned them that this was a standard law exam question. (When I was a student, a hint like that would have led to the information being underlined in red and written in CAPS) Well, I went over the problem in class, again.  Three or four weeks later, it was time for mid-terms. I went over the elements of a valid contract, again. I reminded them it was important information, again. I gave the same question as in the first exam. Same wording and everything.  Two people got an “A.” The rest failed.  On the FINAL exam, I gave the same question again. Same wording as the previous ones. Not just the same concept, or the same problem, but the same wording.  SAME result.  At the end of the semester, I ended up giving an “F” to about half the class. (That was the half still present - another half, seeing the handwriting on the wall, had dropped out)

So why am I telling this story, other than that my time to be a blogger is almost gone and I hate to give up the soap box??  It’s because it was ME who was called on the carpet by the school administration and told that I could not flunk so many students even though they had not learned the material.  Most of the students ended up taking the course again from an easier grader and my career teaching soon ended.

Did this happen because I am such a poor teacher?  I certainly don’t believe so. So stick by your TV sets, folks, because the Princeton faculty has yet to discover the storm their new policy will bring on them, not from the administration as it was for me, but from the parents who will react the same way.