Colloquy Live: 4/5/2001: A Controversial Campaign Against Grade Inflation

A Controversial Campaign Against Grade Inflation

Thursday, April 5, at 12:30 p.m., U.S. Eastern time

Is grade inflation out of control at leading colleges? Are college administrators reluctant to do anything about the issue?

Faculty members have long complained about grade inflation and a decline in standards at American colleges. Numerous surveys have found an upward creep in grades, and professors report that students are outraged when they get C's. At Harvard University this semester, Harvey C. Mansfield started his own campaign against grade inflation, and he has set off a debate over academic rigor. Mr. Mansfield announced that he would give two grades to his political-philosophy students this year: an official grade, which would "conform with Harvard's inflated distribution" in which half of all undergraduate grades are A's or A-'s, and an unofficial grade, which would be what the student really deserved. In an essay in the April 6 issue of The Chronicle, Mr. Mansfield explains his reasoning. "There is something inappropriate -- almost sick -- in the spectacle of mature adults showering young people with unbelievable praise," Mr. Mansfield writes, adding, "In a healthy university, it would not be necessary to say what is wrong with grade inflation." Mr. Mansfield incited additional debate by suggesting that grade inflation at Harvard took off when the university started to admit large numbers of black students. Professors didn't want to give the students low grades, Mr. Mansfield suggested, so they lowered their standards for all students. Harvard officials immediately disputed Mr. Mansfield's analysis, but he writes in his essay this week that they have not released any evidence to back up their arguments.

» Gutless on Grade Inflation (4/6/2001)

» At Harvard, a Veteran of the Grade-Inflation Wars Launches a Guerrilla Offensive (2/6/2001)

Mr. Mansfield, who has taught at Harvard since 1962, is the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Government at the university. He is an expert on Burke and Machiavelli (and a translator of the latter), on the nature of political parties, and on the U.S. Constitution. His books include Statesmanship and Party Government: A Study of Burke and Bolingbroke (University of Chicago Press), The Spirit of Liberalism (Harvard University Press), Machiavelli's New Modes and Orders: A Study of the Discourses on Livy (Cornell University Press), Taming the Prince: The Ambivalence of Modern Executive Power (Free Press), America's Constitutional Soul (The Johns Hopkins University Press), and Machiavelli�s Virtue (University of Chicago Press). Mr. Mansfield will respond to questions and comments about grade inflation and his essay on Thursday, April 5, at 12:30 p.m., U.S. Eastern time. Advance questions are encouraged.

A transcript of the chat follows.

Sarah Bray (Moderator):
Good afternoon, and welcome to Colloquy Live. I'm Sarah Hardesty Bray, an editor at The Chronicle, and I'll be serving as the moderator of this discussion on grade inflation.

Our guest today with be Dr. Harvey Mansfield, the William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of Government at Harvard University. Dr. Mansfield, who has taught at Harvard since 1962, recently gained significant national attention for starting his own campaign against grade inflation. He is giving each student in his political-philosophy class two grades this year: The first grade is an official grade that conforms with the distribution of all Harvard grades, in which half of all undergraduates grades are A's or A-'s. The second grade is his own unofficial grade--or what Dr. Mansfield thinks the student really deserves.

Welcome Dr. Mansfield, and thank you for joining us.

Harvey Mansfield:
Thank you. I think that grade inflation is a scandal at Harvard and other elite universities, and it's time that we face this situation and begin to look for remedies.

Question from Marta Calas, University of Massachusetts-Amherst:
Given the increased pressures and assaults on tenure, has there been any analysis of the relationship between grades and student evaluations? How much of grade inflation is a function of faculty needing better evaluations?

Harvey Mansfield:
Yes, there's been some analysis of that point by a professor at the University of Virginia, Richard. E. Redding. He has found that there is, as one might expect, a positive correlation between grade inflation and the use of student evaluations. It's hardly surprising!

Up until the late 1960's, the only student evaluations at Harvard were in an unofficial guide. That guide became highly political and critical. To protect the faculty, the administration developed more scientific surveys. So student evaluations were created with good intentions at the beginning, but the result has been to subject professors to the verdict of student opinion. Student evaluations are usually done hastily at the end of the course, before the substance of the course has really sunk in. We should ask students how they feel about a course a year later, or even 10 years later.

Question from Russell Cadman, University of Alaska, Fairbanks:
Grade inflation is a fact of life because colleges and universities try to be accountable by asking students to grade professors yet students have no training to do so. Doing away with student evaluations and training professors to evaluate would be appropriate, but would the administration go along with it?

Harvey Mansfield:
You may be right that it is harder to do away with student evaluations than to change grade inflation. Students now feel that they have the right to make professors accountable to them through evaluations. And the administrators now feel the need to have an objective evaluation of how professors teach. Unfortunately, they only use student evaluations to do that. Student evaluations are the only ones professors get a most places; they're the only evaluations that we faculty members receive at Harvard. How good a teacher you are turns out to be how good the specific students in your course think you are.

Question from Dr. G. Jay Christensen, CA State University, Northridge:
Grade inflation is out of control at most colleges and universities, not just the leading ones. I have had to lower my standards and change the grade on a writing paper from a "C" to being a "B" to accommodate the non-English speaking student. How does your grade inflation concern affect minority students who cannot write or speak English well? How can they compete?

Harvey Mansfield:
I don't think that it helps minority students or those who don't write well if we essentially lie to them and tell them that they are doing better than they in fact are. They should be told straight out through their grades that their speaking and writing needs improvement. That's the only way to teach and defend the proper use of English.

Question from John Popoli, Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, a business school specializing in part-time MBA programs:
To what extent is the problem of grade inflation exacerbated by corporate tuition reimbursement policies that link the level of reimbursement to grades--for example 100 percent reimbursement for an "A", 50 percent reimbursement for a "B," and so on?

Harvey Mansfield:
I haven't encountered that but I certainly don't like the idea. It definitely gives a professor a motive to raise the grades of a student, especially if he or she gets a kickback from the student--say a fraction of the money they are paid to take the course. There is a strong temptation for corruption in a system like that.

Question from Peter Sacks, author:
Part of the sense of students' sense of entitlement to good grades at elite institutions may come from social and institutional practices that tell these kids they're ALREADY the best. After all, they've got the test scores to prove it. This shifts the burden of proof to the hapless professor who must build a case beyond reasonable doubt -- in order to stand up to his or her deans and department heads -- that the student's actual college work isn't up to par. Colleges won't stop grade inflation until this society and institutions themselves stop placing so much emphasis on the POTENTIAL to achieve, as measured by test scores, and instead persuade young people that the quality of their real work, not abstract measures of future potential, is what really matters for their future success. Can you comment?

Harvey Mansfield:
The quality of real work is the ultimate test, that's for sure. But universities need a way to choose those students who apply from many and various high schools. The SAT exam is the only one that all students take together. High school records can be misleading. And so I think that we cannot dispense with SAT exams. It might be well if those exams were reversed in their recent inflation so that they would indicate better the range of abilities of students presenting themselves for college admission. Though I agree with Mr. Sacks that SAT's are not the final test, they are, I think, a necessary, though imperfect, instrument.

Question from Ben McArthur Southern Adventist University:
I would like your reaction to my comment. I believe grade inflation is real, and not just at selective institutions. Many teachers no longer want to seriously engage the work of their students. Their priorities are elsewhere (research, consulting,etc.) Therefore it is easier to simply hand out gold stars on student work so that they can quickly return to their own work. When this kind of behavior becomes widespread on a campus it then becomes hard for those teachers who want to maintain rigorous grading standards to do so. Changing student expectations will beat them down until they come into line.

Harvey Mansfield:
I agree very much with what Professor McArthur says. Grade inflation is ultimately the responsibility of the faculty. There are other factors impinging on faculty behavior, but it is ultimately the faculty that gives the grades. The need for faculty to do research is no excuse for inflated grades. A generation ago professors were able to do their research without giving inflated grades, and it's time for them to return to that habit. But, because it is difficult for one professor to act alone, we need leadership from the university administration.

Question from Alfred Bork, U of California, Irvine:
Whys should we give grades at all? We should aim, I believe for mastery for everyone, possible today.

Harvey Mansfield:
We should give grades because students' abilities differ in the mastery of difficult problems. Going to a university is not like a driver's test, where you expect all normal people to pass. The questions in all fields require the deepest reflection and human beings have different capacities for this task. Any professor who gives all A's needs to rethink his standards and formulate harder examinations.

Question from Chuck Lockyer, attorney:
Are there selective schools that have not experienced severe grade inflation? My impression is that Washington and Lee is one such college.

Harvey Mansfield:
I too think well of Washington and Lee, though I'm not sure what their grading policy is. One school I happen to know does not have grade inflation, because I visited there last fall, is West Point. American citizens can be grateful for that fact.

Question from J. E. Stone, East Tennessee State University, :
I wrote an article in '95 calling on higher education oversight bodies to take an honest look at grade inflation. I suggested that it amounted to academic fraud and that it was turning colleges into high priced diploma mills. I blamed administrative policies such as enrollment-based funding and student ratings of instruction. Of course, it was ignored. I realize that many professors are not concerned but I believe that those who would choose to resist inflationary pressures face an impossible task. Your opinion?

Harvey Mansfield:
I sympathize with Professor Stone but I'm obliged to hope that the job of curing grade inflation is not impossible. I think it's still the case that students are responding to what differences remain in grades, so it's clear that grades still are an incentive. I judge the situation not to be hopeless, partly because of my experience and my fight against grade inflation. I find that grade inflation does not play in Peoria. Most people outside universities cannot understand and do not appreciate the outlandish grades we are giving. So I think that when universities are brought to public account, as primary and secondary education in America is being brought to account, something will have to be done despite the pressures that Professor Stone correctly cites.

Comment from Liz Yorke, Trinity College, Hartford, (Liberal Arts College):
I am a psychotherapist who has worked full time with students for over ten years in the UK, and who has recently moved to teach in the US at a high ranking liberal arts college. I do note the grade inflation.

The British system is infinitely harder on students than in the US. I recently attempted to give a C+ to a weaker student in the US and she was distraught. Tears flowed and she was inconsolable. She said she had never received below a B+. As a therapist, I listened to her and heard her story. The reason she was so distressed was that her parents were not well off and had scrimped and saved to get her into this prestigious school and had huge expectations for her. She was utterly overwhelmed struggling to meet these inflated expectations which were backed up with threats, thus creating a situation of terror for her.

This is not an isolated situation. I asked other students, and they too admitted that parental pressure to do outstandingly well was widespread, and was a considerable source of stress. This young student felt an overriding necessity to make good grades to compensate her parents for their sacrifice, and felt guilty and ashamed that she was not making straight A's. She was working desperately hard, but achieving little.

In my view grade inflation overall has little to do with affirmative action. I now have several classes including one class with 8 black and one white. The standard across these classes for black and white students is across the grades with both stronger and weaker students in both groups. (In the UK I would expect to see a much weaker performance overall from the minority (black and Asian mostly) students. It seems to me therefore that affirmative action is working, and working better than we have achieved so far in the UK. I would say that grade inflation has far more to do with the economic structure of US education system, in that the education received is not free, that parents who may not be able to afford it, desperately want their child to do well and succeed - for a lifetime's saving (or a second mortgage) is on the line. That's a huge burden for a late adolescent to carry. I have recalibrated my grade system to take this into account.

Question from Dr. Diana Velez, University of Central Florida:
While the issue of multiculturalism has been given as one reason for grade inflation, there is another, no less important, factor in this trend: the emergence of the student as "consumer" and how this "commercialization" of student/professor relations has had an impact on grade distribution pressures. To what extent has the "student as consumer" ideal-- itself a mercantile version of "self-esteem"-- added to the overall problem of grade inflation? Do please try to raise the level of debate here from the fault of minorities and anti-war protestors of the '60's to something more relevant to the present culture of consumerism and mass market culture.

Harvey Mansfield:
I like Professor Velez's point made against me. Indeed, let's look at the present and indeed, too, I agree that treating the student as consumer is a big part of grade inflation. If you look at universities today, they reveal the principle of almost unlimited choice at work. There is choice in the university cafeteria, and there is choice in the course catalog. So why should a student expect to be judged according to the choices that he makes in life? Students indeed look at universities for what they can give them, more than for what they can learn. They feel in themselves the sovereignty of the consumer more than a yearning desire to learn.

Question from A. Mills, a NJ university:
If you think that grade inflation might also be the result of the application of a "managerial" model to college education, in the specific case of Harvard, is there any danger of "brand dilution" --that inflation will end up undermining the value of an Harvard degree? Is Harvard going the way of Gucci?

Harvey Mansfield:
I don't know about the managerial model. The Harvard Business School used to be known for its high standards. There's a considerable danger of "brand dilution." In the Harvard Crimson 2 weeks ago, a letter was published from a professor at the University of Rochester concerned with admissions to a professional school, saying that a Harvard transcript, in their view, is almost worthless now. This may not be the case everywhere, and I hope for the sake of our students, that it is not. But the danger is lurking there.

Question from Sarah Hardesty Bray, The Chronicle:
One reason students worry so much about grades is that many of them want to go to graduate and professional school. If Harvard Law School announced that it was adjusting G.P.A.'s at colleges known to have inflated grades, it would probably capture the attention of many students and educators. Do you have any thoughts on how places like Harvard Law could contribute to your campaign?

Harvey Mansfield:
That's a very good idea. One would not want to attempt a cure of grade inflation by condemning one class of Harvard seniors to a failure in getting admitted to the best law schools, but I do think that professional schools and graduate schools should make their wishes known for transcripts that have some meaning in them.

Question from Mike Hoots, University of Southern Colorado:
I suspect that a large part of grade inflation is due to the shift to a more standards based evaluation of individual performance that began in the late 1970's. Employers don't care if a graduate is above average (B), average (C), or other normative based evaluation criteria. They want to know if the graduate can competently (C), more than competently (B), etc accomplish required tasks. Are many faculty merely bastardizing the normative curve system to fit a performance oriented world and if so, do we need to implement a new classroom performance evaluation system that more accurately gauges these workplace values?

Harvey Mansfield:
I think professors should hold to the normative evaluations of the liberal arts. They should not exchange their judgment on a student's command of subjects in liberal arts for work-oriented evaluations that state flatly whether a student can or cannot do a particular assignment. The purpose is the cultivation of the mind and not a collection of unrelated abilities to perform in different ways. In that, I don't think that universities should allow themselves to be dictated to by employers.

Question from Hans Allhoff, Brown University ('00):
I believe it was Henry Wriston (a past president of Brown) who once said in a speech "Universities are responsible for their students, not to them." My two part question is 1) What would happen if Neil Rudenstine (or Ruth Simmons) said something similar today, and 2) What sort of cultural or intellectual change has taken place to explain this shift?

Harvey Mansfield:
I think that if the president of Harvard and the president of Brown said what Henry Wriston said, they would get away with it. It remains true that universities are responsible for their students, not to them. That is a very pregnant phrase that deserves to be recalled. The reason why it is not recalled is in the devotion we now give to the idea of self-esteem and its associated variants, as I tried to explain in my article.

Question from Ed, large state university:
Since you attribute grade inflation to the practice of student evaluations, would you be willing to share the results of your evaluations with us and tell us how they compare with those of other professors?

Harvey Mansfield:
I think that student evaluation are a rather small factor in grade inflation. More important is the professor's own desire not to be judgmental. My own course evaluations are good but not great. What I like about them are the added comments, especially the critical comments, more than the rating of 1 to 5.

Question from Elisabeth Riba, workforce and part-time grad student, Boston:
How much of a role do you think increasing college costs have played in grade inflation? Both in terms of "getting one's money's worth" and in regards to students' increasing dependence upon financial aid-- much of which is grade-based (maintain a B-average to keep the scholarship). Also, are the increasingly-competitive college rankings, such as that of U.S. News and World Report, adding to this pressure?

Harvey Mansfield:
My guess is that those factors may contribute to grade inflation, but are not important causes. The cost of universities has risen faster than price inflation and there is a certain desire on the part of students to get their money's worth. But in most cases, the tuition is still paid by your parents, and that makes a big difference. Extension school students who pay their own tuition are more demanding in the way that Ms. Riba mentions. I do not know whether grade-based scholarships are a factor, either. At Harvard, there are no such scholarships, I think. College ranking may be a small factor, but I don't even know if student satisfaction is an element in that ranking. Universities have always competed in unofficial rankings, so I doubt there's very much new pressure from that quarter.

Question from Frank Forman, U.S. Department of Education:
What concrete interests were served during the process of compressing grades toward the higher end of the scale? Have we reached an equilibrium now, or will eventually everyone get "A's"? Are any current interests being served by the current grade average, or are we just in a cul-de-sac?

Harvey Mansfield:
If you look at whatever justification is being given for grade inflation, it would not stop short of A's for everybody. That is the only secure and equal self-esteem available. Preventing that is a remaining realism that admits the need for some distinctions to be made, but tries to minimize them. I don't know that we are at an equilibrium now; I rather doubt it. If professors like myself, who have been grading below the curve, start grading with the curve, the curve will continue to rise. I believe that's happened in the past few years, but I'm not sure because grade records, even collective grade records, are not disclosed. The supposed interest being served by grade inflation is making people happy in the wrong way.

Question from Marilyn Quigley, Evangel University:
John Leo in his U.S. News column, Oct. 18, 1993, quotes Harvard senior Dianne Reeder: "Since so many of us have A- averages, our grades are meaningless." He also says that Harvard Magazine cites a dean of admissions at a top-six law school who says his office ignores honors from Harvard "because so many applicants have them." My question is this--how can the intelligent, elite faculty members at Harvard (or any other university) convince themselves that they are being honest in labeling so many of their graduates deserving of honors (83.6 % for Harvard in 1993)? Students like Dianne are not proud of their "honors"; they can see that such grading is a sham. Why aren't the Harvard faculty embarrassed by what they are doing? They must have some method of rationalizing. What is it?

Harvey Mansfield:
I wish I knew. I very much agree that the Harvard faculty should be ashamed of itself. If you ask them why they continue to give such outlandishly high grades, they will say that the students are better than they used to be. This is an argument I treated in my article. Some of them will also say that grades are too judgmental, that they cause stress. I don't think much of these arguments, but this is what they say. It is very difficult for one professor, or a few professors, to correct this situation by themselves.

Comment from D at a small community college:
Here there are lists of 'at risk' courses -- or those with success rates (grade "C" or better) under 80 percent. Professors who teach such courses must go to extra meetings to document what they are doing about it. In other words, faculty are actually punished for giving low grades. This comes from the administration. Yes, they are doing something about it. They are causing it.

Question from Mark Grove, Indiana University Purdue University Indianapolis:
One phenomenon we have seen in our review of this issue is the growth in the number of withdrawals (non-punitive grades). Presumably these students were performing less well than others and opted out (and were allowed to, even at late dates). As a result, the course GPA was higher even though the number of A's and B's hadn't changed much over the five year period (admittedly short) of our study. We are a fairly large urban institution and nearly all of our students commute--and work. When I was a student so many years ago we never even knew such an option existed. We presume this is related to the move toward seeing such decisions as much or more through the eyes of consumers than as students. Do you see any evidence of an increased withdrawal rate nationally?

Harvey Mansfield:
This seems to me a very important point. I very much agree that early course withdrawals have increased in recent years, though I have not made a study of the matter. It's very clear, as Mr. Grove shows, how this piece of laxity can add to grade inflation. What it does is to permit a student to give up early when he sees he is having difficulty. So it tends to foster bad character in students who are permitted to quit when they might have persevered.

Question from Marilyn Quigley, Evangel University:
Do you believe if two or three presidents of large, prestigious universities took steps to deflate grading in their schools, that such action would be the impetus for change? If not, what would it take to begin reversing this current phenomena of grade inflation?

Harvey Mansfield:
I do agree that two or three leading universities could make a great impression. Even one such university could have a great effect. So, whereas one professor can do little to change the situation, one president might do a great deal This is a memo to Harvard's new president, Larry Summers.

Comment from Doug Caycomb, Normandale Community College:
The system rewards us for getting good student evaluations, not for good teaching. One of the best ways to get good evaluations is to make the students think they're doing well -- issue high grades. So, for the sake of my family's material security, I do it.

I would like to point out a glaring double standard. We grade students and students grade us. These grades have profound implications for the professional futures of both parties. The problem: We are held accountable, required to defend the fairness of our grading systems. They, in contrast, grade us anonymously. This is a chilling reality -- one that leaves me feeling rather helpless.

Question from Mandana Hashemzadeh, a student at Claremont Graduate University:
I have two questions regarding the standards upon which post-secondary education ought to be evaluated:

1) Do you propose a uniform set of standards for such purposes on the national level, or the state level, or the institutional level?

2) How do you respond to those who assert that the decentralized -- non-system -- of American higher education does not beget such uniformity on any level?

Harvey Mansfield:
I have not thought about a uniform set of standards, either state or federal. I do think that universities that are otherwise allies, for example, the Ivy League, could readily get together and form a policy of grade reduction in common that would ensure that their students are not disadvantaged. But I'm quite hesitant to propose a uniform, compulsory standard, whether federal or state. I think that when the most prestigious universities do something about grade inflation, universities generally will be encouraged to follow. In that situation, a university with too high grades would seem to be going against the trend instead of with it, as at present. Right now, there is a growing uniformity of grade inflation without any government compulsion. Why couldn't the remedy for grade inflation work in the same way?

Comment from Xiomara Santamarina, University of Michigan:
Let's take up Dr. Velez's point again about "students as consumers" model because it provides an important theoretical alternative to your affirmative action one.

Your observation about self-esteem imperatives (to students) makes sense as derived in part from a consumer ethos. But you should also consider the origins of this "self-esteem" imperative (the "hand-holding" rule) in a parenting philosophy that has been gaining popularity for at least a couple of decades. I'm not a parenting expert (only a parent, alas) but I believe faculty who desire to be popular are adapting their pedagogy to this parenting ethos (which drives me crazy).

As a young teacher on the tenure track I am very sensitive to having to be "popular" but as the parent of young kids, I've learnt that sometimes doing what's right is going to make you unpopular. Now, teachers should not treat their students like their kids, of course. But they should recognize that challenging their students is the best, pedagogically effective way of showing your respect to them. Of course, some students want to be "coddled" and do not appreciate the fact that I don't "mother" them (especially when it comes to grades) but most do recognize intellectual respect--even in the form of critical judgments--when they see it. And isn't that the best way after all of inculcating self-esteem?

Question from Cary Fraser, Penn State University:
I was struck by Professor Mansfield's comment: "At colleges, self-esteem often goes hand in hand with multiculturalism or sensitivity to people of diverse races and ethnicities -- meaning that professors must avoid offending the identities (still another name for self-esteem) of victimized groups." He confesses that his views are derived from "what I saw and heard at the time." He then adds "Any professor who did not overgrade black students either felt the impulse to do so or saw others doing it. From that, I inferred a motive for overgrading white students, too." I am constrained to ask Professor Mansfield to speculate whether he or his colleagues were motivated by a desire to overgrade white students in order to sustain an illusion of white intellectual superiority--at a time in American life when the very idea of white supremacy no longer enjoyed its status as the "conventional wisdom."

Harvey Mansfield:
That might be the case in a few instances, but I think the great majority of white professors at that time, and still today, are strong opponents of white superiority. Their motive was well-meant but ill-aimed.

Question from Dr. Paul Wiens, Wheaton College, IL:
A study of grades at Wheaton College shows that grade inflation is proceeding at a rate which will produce an average GPA of 4.0 by the year 2048. My suggestion to the Provost, which has been ignored of course, is a Weighted GPA in which the professor's GPA is factored in; thus a student earning 1 credit of A might actually earn more or less than 4 points depending on the professor's GPA. Both the student's regular GPA and the new WGPA would be shown on the transcript but the new WGPA would be used to determine internal honors and scholarships. To your knowledge, has any college implemented such a strategy and if so, how has it worked?

Harvey Mansfield:
I believe Dartmouth has attempted that strategy. I believe transcripts at Dartmouth College indicate, when a grade is given, how many other students in the same course got that grade. I don't know how this has worked, but in my own case, it would be a great help.

Question from M. Wilbrod Madzura, Normandale Community College:
It appears that the issue of grade inflation has some of its roots in the high schools, which are then amplified during the college years. What sort of strategies can we develop to counteract the problem, not only at its "sources," but also at the college level?

Harvey Mansfield:
I don't know about grade inflation in high school relative to colleges. My guess, however, would be that the problem starts in the colleges at the higher level, and then seeps down to the lower level.

Question from Paul, interested alum of an institution similar to Harvard:
What about eliminating grades entirely in favor of narrative evaluations? After all, shouldn't the point be to not compare one student to another, but to evaluate each student? Aren't letter grades merely an ineffective shorthand?

Harvey Mansfield:
I think the point is both to evaluate the student and to compare him with others. It's very important to try to understand what is special and unique about each student, and professors can do this in their letters of recommendation. But it's also very important for students to be compared. They are competing for opportunities that are scarce and we need to be sure that the successful applicants are the best that there are. Only grades that compare students will serve this second purpose.

Sarah Bray (Moderator):
That's all the time that we have for questions. It's been a very stimulating discussion. Thank you very much, Dr. Mansfield, for joining us.

Harvey Mansfield:
I would like to express my gratitude to all the correspondents, including those who disagreed. I think that grade inflation, when brought out into the light of public inspection, will not have the easy success it has enjoyed up to now.