Committee rethinks solution to grade "compression"

That Yale College faculty plan to replace the A–F grading system with a numerical system? Never mind.

As we reported in a feature article in our last issue, an ad hoc faculty committee proposed grading on a 100-point scale in order to allow finer distinctions and make grades more meaningful in a time when 62 percent of grades are A's or A-minuses. But as Yuval Ben-David ’16 writes in today's Yale Daily News, the committee announced at yesterday's faculty meeting that they have abandoned that idea. (The committee was tasked with considering the problem of grade inflation, but they prefer the term "grade compression," since the problem is not that grades have gone higher than an A, just that more and more grades are A's.)

Instead, they are now looking at the idea of "stratified grading": suggesting different curves for introductory, intermediate, and advanced courses. Along with the numerical system, the committee had earlier suggested non-mandatory guidelines for the distribution of grades in all courses: 35 percent in the 90–100 range, 40 percent in the 80–89 range, 20 percent in the 70–79 range, 4 to 5 percent in the 60–69 range, and 0 to 1 percent failing. The stratified grading idea would presumably adjust these targets based on the level of the course.