WHAT CAN FACULTY MEMBERS DO ABOUT GRADE INFLATION?
Clearly, the impetus for change must come from members of the faculty, for it is they who assign grades. UA President Peter Likins agrees that grade inflation is a matter on which the faculty, not the administration, must lead. What can individual faculty members do? First and most important, they can review their own grading practices. Grade inflation arose not by decree, but through an accumulation of many decisions by many teachers. It can subside only in the same way. Second, faculty members can encourage discussion of grade inflation–and what can be done about it–within their academic units. A good question for units to consider is “What will work for us?”. The best approaches won’t be everywhere the same, and uniformity is not the object. Third, if they belong to committees concerned with pedagogical matters, they can ask those bodies to consider remedies for grade inflation. Fourth, they can state their grading practices publicly. One effective way to do this is to compute gra
