In undergraduate courses, A's (A+, A, A-) shall account for less than 35 percent of the grades given in any department or program in any given year.PrincetonUniversity
Grading Proposals, April 6, 2004 | prev | next
In undergraduate courses, A's (A+, A, A-) shall account for less than 35 percent of the grades given in any department or program in any given year.
In junior and senior independent work, A's (A+, A, A-) shall account for less than 55 percent of the grades given in any department in any given year.
Recognizing the responsibility of each faculty member to be cognizant of institutional grading limits, it shall be up to each department or program to determine how best to meet these limits. In so doing, the department or program shall take into account the range, size, and level of difficulty of undergraduate courses and the collective expectations of the faculty for independent work. The Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing shall provide the faculty with models drawn from actual practice to illustrate how the grading limits might be met. It shall be the responsibility of the department chair or program director to lead faculty colleagues in adhering to these limits.
Each fall, the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing shall report to the faculty on the grading record of the previous academic year.
The reports to the faculty shall document the grades they have actually given (that is, grades before P/D/F conversions are made).
All members of the faculty shall have access to grading data for all departments and programs, all divisions, and the University as a whole.
Each fall, the Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing shall review the grading record of the previous year with a Select Committee on Grading, whose membership shall include the Dean of the Faculty, the Dean of the College, the Registrar, and six members of the faculty (one department chair from each division, and two faculty members who have served previously on the Committee on Examinations and Standing). In the case of departments or programs that have not adhered to institutional grading limits, the Select Committee shall advise the Committee on Examinations and Standing on an appropriate strategy to assure adherence in the future.
The standard by which the grading record of a department or program will be evaluated will be the percentage of A's given over the previous three years.
Information about each student's cumulative class standing at the end of the semester most recently completed shall be reported to the student on My Academic Record. That standing shall be reported in terms of quintiles -- e.g., 1st quintile, 2nd quintile.
The Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing shall publish and distribute to the faculty an expanded version of the Guide to Good Grading Practices that incorporates a number of examples of the grading standards adopted by the departments.
The Faculty Committee on Examinations and Standing shall undertake to redefine the meaning of each of the letter grades. This information shall be incorporated in the Undergraduate Announcement and, more briefly, on the back of the transcript.
Each year, the Dean of the College shall inform new members of the faculty about the University's grading expectations and policies and shall provide some historical background and context for the faculty's efforts to address grade inflation.