Members in the Media
From: The New York Times

Harvard Caps A’s as Selective Colleges Attack Grade Inflation

Faculty members at Harvard University voted in recent days to cap the number of top grades they are permitted to award to undergraduate students, in an attempt to reduce grade inflation at one of America’s most prestigious colleges.

Steven Pinker, a Harvard psychology professor who has been outspoken about the problem of grade inflation, cheered the results.

“Grade inflation forced a race to the bottom in which any professors who held the line with challenging material and standards would see their enrollments plummet,” Dr. Pinker said in an email. “It turned universities into national laughingstocks.”

Even more could be done, he suggested, such as capping the number of A-minus grades, “but this is a good start.”

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