Grade economics

What exactly is an A worth these days? The answer to that depends on who's giving it out, and don't expect to hear the same thing twice.

Ivy League institutions are notorious for being self-absorbed. It should come as no shock to anyone that these schools each want to make their students look as best they can.

The Harvard admissions office probably salivates at the idea of telling prospective students (and donors) that 64.8 or so percent of history majors have a 4.0 GPA. Sure that sounds good, but it does not mean anything.

When schools practice such inflationary policies they are creating a lopsided playing field for the rest of academia.

Grade inflation is a problem not because too many people are getting high marks, but rather because it changes the relative value of those grades in comparison to peers.

What does a B in chemistry at Penn count for when compared with what might be an A at Harvard or Princeton? No one really knows. To an outsider, who probably assumes that all elite schools practice some sort of grade inflation, it puts the Penn student at a disadvantage.

Sometimes just the perception that grades at places like Penn or other schools should be on par with those that are actively inflated is damaging enough.

And no one across higher education can agree on what should be done to correct this blatantly unfair system. Princeton's reactionary policy of setting a 35 percent quota on A grades is not worth considering, since it puts an unnecessary ceiling on individual achievement.

There really is no magic bullet solution to this grade inflation puzzle, but the key going forward is compromise. The rest of the world needs to know is that one person's A represents an equal quality of work as another's.

To this end, the Council of Ivy League Presidents -- their meetings are not that busy as it stands -- should hold a meeting to discuss the issue of grades. It is imperative that schools come to a consensus about what makes an A so that there can finally be some meaning to performance evaluation.

In the grand scheme of things, grades are not everything. But so long as some practice grade inflation and others do not, students transcripts will not mean anything at all.

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