Grade Distribution, Spring Terms 1970 to 1995
Crime Is Only Going to Get Worse, Says John DiIulio
Are Students Getting Smarter?
Or are professors just pressured to give out more A's?
Students are getting smarter-or so it seems by the increasingly higher grades they're receiving. Last year, undergraduates earned 8 percent more A's than they did just seven years ago and more than twice as many as they did in 1969-70. In 1994-95, 41 percent of all grades awarded were A's and 42 percent were B's, according to the Office of the Registrar.
Princeton didn't invent grade inflation. According to Registrar C. Anthony Broh, it's a phenomena of private highly selective institutions. Yet at the same time as grades are creeping up at Princeton, undergraduate grades nationwide have been going down, according to a federal study released last October. The drop, said Clifford Adelman, a senior research analyst for the Department of Education, is due to a 37 percent increase in the number of people attending college.
Public colleges aren't experiencing grade inflation-a continual increase in the average grade, explained Broh-at the same rate as highly selective institutions, because their curricula are structured differently. Ohio State's curriculum, for example, is designed to weed out students, said Broh.
Princeton saw grades inflate in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The percentage of all grades that were A's jumped from 17 percent in 1969-70 to 30 percent in 1974-75. Students earned higher grades at Princeton and other institutions, in part, because of the Vietnam War. Students whose grade-point averages dropped too low were drafted, said Broh, "so faculty generally felt pressure" to give high marks.
The percentages among grades remain-ed fairly constant from the late 1970s through the early 1980s. In 1987-88, 33 percent of grades were A's. Since then, grades have risen at about the same rate as they did during the early 1970s. The primary reason for the jump, said Broh, is that professors feel some pressure from students to give higher grades so they can better compete for admission to graduate and professional schools.
Princeton's grade distribution is comparable to that of its peer institutions. At Dartmouth the percentage of all grades that are A's rose from 33 percent in 1977-78 to 43 percent in 1993-94, according to Associate Registrar Nancy Broadhead. At Harvard, the hybrid grade A/A- represented 22 percent of all grades in 1966-67 and 43 percent in 1991-92, said spokeswoman Susan Green. C's have virtually disappeared from Harvard transcripts, reported Harvard Magazine in 1993.
Students aren't the only ones who apply subtle pressure to professors. Several years ago, an instructor of linear algebra gave a third of the class C's, and there was "a big uproar," said Joseph J. Kohn *56, the chairman of the mathematics department. He received a "long letter" from a dean who suggested that that kind of grading would discourage the students.
Ten years ago, a third of a class earning C's was normal, said Kohn. Professors feel they're supposed to grade "efforts," not the product, he added.
Another reason for grade inflation, said Broh, is that students are taking fewer courses Pass/D/Fail, which since 1990-91 have been limited to one per term for each student. Therefore, students are earning more A's and B's and fewer P's.
Some observers believe that students are just smarter than they were 25 years ago, and they're working harder. The SAT scores continue to rise, noted Broh.
Even if a professor wanted to "deflate" grades, one person can't expect to "unilaterally try to reinvent grading," said Lee C. Mitchell, the chairman of the English department. One professor alone would be "demonized," if he or she tried to grade "accurately," said Clarence F. Brown, Jr., a professor of comparative literature. "The language of grading is utterly debased," he added, noting that real grading is relegated to letters of recommendation, a kind of "secret grading."
Not every professor and student on campus has succumbed to grade inflation, however. In the mind of Dean of the School of Engineering and Applied Science James Wei, a C is still average. Professors in the engineering school still regularly give grades below B's, though "students are indignant," he said.
According to Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel, the university periodically reviews grade distribution. The administration encourages faculty members to think carefully about grading patterns, but "we don't tell [them] what grades to give," said Malkiel.
Harvard isn't planning on doing anything about the shift in grades, said Green. Dartmouth, however, last year changed its grading policy. In an effort to assess student performance more effectively, report cards and transcripts now include not only grades, but also the median grade earned by the class and the size of the class. The change may also affect grade inflation, but it's too soon to tell if it has, said Broadhead.
In the end, perhaps grade inflation is inconsequential. As Kohn said, "The important thing is what students learn, not what [grades] they get." And as Dean of the Faculty Amy Gutmann told The Daily Princetonian, "There is no problem [with grade inflation] as long as grades reflect the quality of work done."
Infografic by Jeff Dionise; Source: Office of the Registrar
This chart, provided by the Office of the Registrar, shows the percentage of grades awarded over the last 25 years. The percentage of A's and B's increased markedly in the late 1960s and early 1970s and again since the late 1980s. The percentage of P's (pass) dropped dramatically in the early 1970s, in part because the Pass/D/Fail option lost favor among students for fear that those evaluating their academic careers would think they took lighter loads, said Registrar C. Anthony Broh. Also, the university now allows fewer courses to be taken Pass/D/Fail. The percentage of P's peaked in 1969-70, when students went on strike during the Vietnam War and sympathetic faculty gave them the option of receiving either a P or a normal grade. Many students opted for P's, said Broh.
Are Students Getting Smarter?
Or are professors just pressured to give out more A's?
The real issue isn't grade inflation, said Registrar C. Anthony Broh, it's grade "compression." Because most grades awarded are A's and B's, it's hard to differentiate between students at the top of a course.
In Memoriam
Donald Worner Griffin '23, who retired in 1964 after leading the alumni office for 30 years, died February 2 in Princeton. He was 95.Griffin transferred to Princeton in 1920. That started an association with the university that would continue for the rest of his life. A plaque in his honor once graced the 1879 Arch, and a bust of Griffin is displayed in the Alumni Council offices in Maclean House. "Pop was known as Mr. Princeton for two decades," said his son, James Q. Griffin '55.
Born in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania, Griffin played center on the football team, including the 1922 "Team of Destiny" that went undefeated. He was president of the Quadrangle Club, active in the Interclub Committee, and a member of the Senior Council.
After graduating, Griffin worked in his family's lumber and woodworking business and for a Philadelphia stockbroker. In 1935 he became secretary of the Alumni Council. In 1961 he was named general secretary of the National Alumni Association, and he retained a lifetime membership on the Graduate Council after retiring in 1964.
Griffin pioneered several innovations that strengthened alumni relations. He started the university's Personnel Index, which became an integral part of Personnel Services under the name Alumni Appointments Office. He edited and published the alumni directory and at one time was the university's film editor. His office also coordinated all Alumni Day programs.
Students also benefitted from Griffin's service. From 1940 until 1942, he chaired the Central Committee on Undergraduate Clubs, which helped revise class-election procedures and ensured that every sophomore would have a chance to join an eating club. He also helped coach the freshman football team in the late 1920s. The Donald W. Griffin Football scholarship is still awarded today.
Griffin once said that he did not have a career. Instead, he had two hobbies-Princeton and the military. In 1925 he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Pennsylvania National Guard and retired as a colonel in the Air Force in 1961.
President Emeritus Robert F. Goheen '40 *48 said Griffin's "personal enthusiasm, drive, and loyalty" were essential in helping Princeton renew its ties to alumni after World War II.
Griffin often drove across campus in horse-drawn vehicles, which he collected and stored on campus for many years. His "surrey with the fringe on top" was well-known to alumni at Reunions.
Crime Is Only Going to Get Worse, Says John DiIulio
John J. DiIulio, Jr. says he never meant to study crime. Nevertheless, the professor of politics and public affairs has become a national authority on what's happening on our mean streets. Legislators and reporters look to him for insight into the latest crime wave and solutions to our society's ills.One of the leading scholars in the field, he has served on New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman's task force on crime, briefed President Clinton on the issue, and testified before Congress. Last November, he wrote a cover story for The Weekly Standard. In January, Time magazine ran a sidebar on him in its cover story on crime.
At 37, DiIulio has quickly established his name in policymaking and at Princeton. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he was hired in 1986 and became a full professor five years later. In 1989 he helped found the Center of Domestic and Comparative Policy Studies. And he has published books on American government, deregulating public services, and health reform. But most people know him for his work on crime.
The son of a deputy sheriff, DiIulio began studying crime in graduate school at Harvard. He wrote his dissertation on prison management, coming at it, he says, "as a student of American politics and public administration." Then in 1987, he wrote Governing Prisons (The Free Press), which broke ground precisely because of its "politics and public administration'' point of view. Suddenly, he was an expert on something he really didn't know a lot about. Says DiIulio, "I'm not a criminologist. . . . I never really have been interested in crime. The thing that has kept me [studying crime] is that I've been engaged in one realworld, practical, policyoriented effort after another."
While DiIulio recommends many conservative ways to deal with crime-such as longer prison sentences and tougher prosecution-these proposals are based on liberal values and a fundamental concern for people.
His message is summed up in the title of an essay published in the August edition of Reader's Digest: "Crime in America: It's Going to Get Worse." He bases his case on a "demographic tidal wave" of likely criminals. Because of an abnormally large number of American children-40 million aged 10 and under, 70 million aged 18 and under-an "increasing fraction" of whom are growing up in what DiIulio describes as "atrisk conditions," he predicts a major crime wave within the next few years.
The number of offenders is only part of the problem. The next wave of criminals will be what he calls "superpredators"-felons "more terrorist than criminal," who are now growing up in an age of "moral poverty."
What can be done about it? He recommends a "threepronged" approach that includes tougher jail sentencing, crime prevention through social programs, and crime protection, such as burglar alarms, for people in highrisk areas.
"I've been recommending . . . that we get [criminals] while they're young and while they're hot," he says. "Rather than waiting until they're 28 and they've already done twothirds or more of the violent serious crimes they're going to commit. Get them at 18 and give them fiveto-ten, no ifs, ands, or buts."
Still, DiIulio is doubtful that the crisis can be averted. "You can do certain things to minimize the damage. But there's really very little at the end of the day that government alone can do," he says.
DiIulio's ideas have had a major impact on crime policy among politicians and academics. He played a significant role in drafting the federal crime bills of 1994 and 1995. However, he is wary about getting too involved in the political process. "I've seen time and again how ideas can be simplified, and simplified ideas can be translated to policy rhetoric, and policy rhetoric gets translated to legislative language, and legislative language gets translated to administrative routines," says DiIulio. "By the time you get to the end of the whole process, you're looking at something that bears little resemblance to what you thought you were advocating." This happened with the 1995 crime bill. After providing his support during the early drafting stages of the law, he opposed it in the end, because it turned out to be "pork-barrel legislation and garbage," DiIulio says.
While he has tried to bring his criminal-justice research to a close, demand from legislators and the public have prevented him from doing so, says DiIulio. However, he hopes to undergo a "change in focus," moving from "5050" to "7525" in favor of issues such as American government, federalism, public management. He is working on several projects that he hopes will form the "capstone" of his work on crime, including a book on the effectiveness of incarceration.
This story was adapted from one written by Rick Klein '98 for The Daily Princetonian.