Grade cap gets an 'F'

The grades of students at one of the country's most prestigious colleges have been steadily rising for the past 30 years, according to the Associated Press Web site. Forty-six percent of students at Princeton are now receiving A's for their classwork, and the administration is now attempting to bring that number down.\nPrinceton Dean of the College Nancy Weiss Malkiel has written a plan that would place a cap on the number of A's professors are allowed to dole out. Under the proposal, only 35 percent of an academic department's grades could come in some form of an A.\nReducing the number of high grades is a good idea, as it is unlikely almost half of all students are doing the best work possible. But the Princeton plan attacks the problem from the wrong angle. The goal of the cap -- one would assume -- would be to keep students from getting better grades than they deserve. Placing a cap on A's would do nothing of the sort.\nThe new limitation would, in fact, have other, more damaging effects. By informing students that among them, only 35 percent will receive that coveted mark on a paper, the administration would inadvertently create a distorted sense of competition between students. No longer would their grades depend upon their individual performance. Instead, they are dependent upon the performance of their peers.\nWhile one could argue the use of the Bell Curve in the classroom has the same effect of judging the individual by the performance of peers, the situations are actually quite different. Whereas the Bell Curve is instituted to aid students and increase their grades, the Princeton cap would only serve to restrict student accomplishment.\nYes, the upward trend in student performance is alarming, but the answer should lie in the material of the class, not its grade distribution. If the administration doesn't feel 46 percent of its students are deserving of A's, why not make the curriculum more difficult? Essentially, if the students are performing to such a high standard with the work they are given, a reduction in grades would be easily achieved by an increase in the level of difficulty students are faced with in the classroom. These are Princeton students. A little challenge shouldn't be out of the question.\nThe way Princeton handles this problem will affect all students. Bradford P. Wilson, executive director of the National Association of Scholars, told www.ap.org Princeton's decision will have a ripple effect. "What goes on at the premier institutions sets the standard of quality for every institution in the country," he said April 6. \nIf this is the case, we IU students could be in trouble. Princeton students don't have to get a 4.0 in college to be successful -- they have a degree from Princeton! But students from lesser universities don't necessarily have that name on which to fall back on. Hoosiers need all the A's they can get.\nLet's hope the Princeton administration realizes the negative effects their precedent could set and decides to challenge rather than restrict.