In response to my post about college students' having been deluded into thinking that high grades should require little more than doing what's expected of them, David Azerrod Azerrad,* program officer for the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, sent a note imploring me not to lose hope and pointing me toward this guide that his organization has issued to help schools put the brakes on grade inflation: Measuring Up: The Problem of Grade Inflation and What Trustees Can Do.
It's unclear to me who has the ways and means to start addressing this pernicious practice. (Though it seems clear the problem doesn't start with the students and certainly goes beyond the profs.) University trustees seem as good a bunch to harangue about it as any.
--Michelle Cottle
* Without grade inflation, perhaps I would have bothered to learn to spell.