Postcard From the Ivy League
On Monday, I’ll be filming an episode of Uncommon Knowledge with Harvard professor of political philosophy Harvey Mansfield. Prof. Mansfield is legendary at Harvard for brilliant lectures, accessibility to students, definitive work on Machiavelli and Toqueville—and standards.
Disgusted with grade inflation, Prof. Mansfield some years ago replaced the standard grading system at Harvard with a system of his own—a system his students call “ironic grading.” In effect, Prof. Mansfield keeps two sets of books, giving the students themselves the grades he believes they truly deserve while submitting to the University the usual, inflated grades for the students’ transcripts. As a former Mansfield student explains:
During the course, you have to write three papers and take a final exam. Those assignments are graded according to Prof. Mansfield’s guidelines. The first paper usually has an average grade of about C+/B- and the final two usually hover around B-/B. At the end of the course, Prof. Mansfield applies the typical curve, so half the course ends up with a final grade of A or A-. On your transcript, then, you see your inflated grade. The irony is only you know whether you deserve it.
There is a second irony. Instead of resenting Prof. Mansfield’s grading system, students enjoy it.
In the last course I took with Prof. Mansfield, my papers were A-, B+, and B+. My final exam grade was B+. My final grade [on the University transcript] was an A, but my true final grade was a B+. You may think this was disappointing, but frankly getting one A- on a paper in Prof. Mansfield’s course was quite satisfying. It felt like a real A-, unlike in other courses.
The good news from Harvard: Prof. Mansfield has no plans to retire. The bad news: The number of Harvard professors who have followed his example, awarding not only inflated grades but true grades, is zero.
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Jul '10
Re: Postcard From the Ivy League
I had a teacher like that in prep school back in the early 60s. He taught Physics and Chemistry. He never gave a grade higher than B. The office would up whatever grade the student got before sending out term reports to parents, but we knew what we had actually earned.
Jun '10
Re: Postcard From the Ivy League
Speaking of Tocqueville:
IF TOCQUEVILLE COULD SEE US NOW (1982 interview with Richard Reeves)
http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1982/4/1982_4_8.shtml
Aug '10
Re: Postcard From the Ivy League
Eugene Kriegsmann: He never gave a grade higher than B.
To never give a grade higher than a B seems just as arbitrary to me as grade inflation, though. Had he never in his whole history had a student outstanding enough to warrant an A?
Also, there's a problem (solved very nicely by Mansfield's "ironic grading") with being the only guy to submit "true" grades to students' transcripts. You can't just assume that strangers looking at a student's transcript will know that your grade was a "true" grade, and not inflated like everyone else's. If your C students are better than others' A students, why would you want strangers to think they are worse than others' A students by assigning them Cs?
Grade inflation is one of those vicious cycles. I can't say I despise teachers who hesitate to put relatively bright students at a comparative disadvantage by officially assigning them "true" grades. On the other hand, the more the mean gets shifted in the A+ direction, the less information grades in general impart. (The same would be true if grades skewed highly to F, but that's not going to happen.)
Re: Postcard From the Ivy League
Midget, you're onto something here. Which is why Princeton's decision of 2004 is so striking--probably the only serious attempt to address grade inflation anywhere in the country. Will put up a post about Princeton later today.
Jun '10
Re: Postcard From the Ivy League
Peter Robinson
Midget, you're onto something here. Which is why Princeton's decision of 2004 is so striking--probably the only serious attempt to address grade inflation anywhere in the country. Will put up a post about Princeton later today. · Aug 8 at 2:01pm
I can tell you from my own classroom practice that the traditional system of awarding A's through F's is totally inadequate. It's a simple linear model lacking any sort of meaningful context. We might as well assign hieroglyphics for all it's worth: Biff earned a sand crane, and Muffy got an alligator! Answer me this riddle, Batman, what can this kid actually do? If I were an employer, that's what I want to know. I would also put as much emphasis on personality testing as a college transcript, which I understand more and more employers are doing these days. There's enough here for a lengthy treatise, but I won't write it today.
Aug '10
Re: Postcard From the Ivy League
~Paules
I can tell you from my own classroom practice that the traditional system of awarding A's through F's is totally inadequate.
Sure, grade assignment isn't adequate. It does, however, have the saving grace of being easy for strangers to process. Sowell (I think in Knowledge and Decisions) has a lot to say about how, for the purposes of sorting a lot of information quickly, there can be an advantage to sticking with what's less descriptive but easier to handle.
Fortunately, personal recommendations also play a role in helping students find jobs or further education. I've seen recommendations do a lot for kids whose talents didn't fit the average good-grade-getting mold. Recommendations run the risk of personal bias, but they also contain specific information on what a student can actually do -- or at least they should.
May '10
Re: Postcard From the Ivy League
Any recent Yale Law grads out there? I've heard Yale Law has done away with calling on students during class - is this true? Has any other law school followed suit?