As part of the effort to combat grade inflation at Pomona, the ASPC Curriculum Committee recently adopted new definitions of academic grades. With these new definitions, an A signifies “exemplary” performance, a B “accomplished,” a C “adequate,” a D “deficient,” and an F, “Unacceptable.”

The next step for the committee will be to consult with the academic departments to determine precisely what an “exemplary” or “A” grade signifies in each department. According to a resolution drafted by the Committee last year, by the end of fall semester 2011, every department must submit a written report detailing their grading standards in light of the refined definitions.

About two-thirds of Pomona grades are A’s and A-’s, a problem whose correction, according to Committee members, will both enhance students’ learning experience and increase their competitiveness after graduating against students from colleges with more refined grading standards.

“The purpose of grades is to increase communication between faculty and students about the students’ class performance, to declare a student’s standing relative to other students, and to communicate the proficiency of the student to the outside world,” said Curriculum Committee chair and history professor Victor Silverman. “Pomona’s current grading system is not accomplishing any of those things.”

In its efforts to create “explicit definitions for grades,” the committee conducted surveys of faculty and students to get a sense of how grades are currently applied and how this grading system is perceived. Along with Silverman, the committee is comprised of several faculty and three student representatives.

“We students gave our individual input, speaking about both our own experiences and communicating anecdotes from other students about their experiences with grading practices,” said Derek Schaible PO ’11, one of the students on the committee. The other student members are Rose Green PO ‘12 and John Thomason PO ‘12.

Schaible expressed confidence that student members “participated fully in the general business of the committee.”

According to Silverman, as the process continues, students will be involved in the curriculum committee, but probably not in the department discussions and drafting of elaborations of the grade definitions.

Along with applying the new definitions, faculty members will receive a report at the end of each semester from the Registrar measuring their grading distribution and comparing their grading tendencies with those of their colleagues.

By the end of Fall semester 2013, Silverman added, the College, possibly through the Curriculum Committee, will “assess the results of the grade definitions and the wider distribution of grade information” and communicate this information to the faculty.

Pomona students were mixed on the idea of new definitions.

“I’m ambivalent about the change,” said Claire Laubaucher PO ’13, a neuroscience major. “On the one hand, it’s obviously nice to be on the receiving end of an easy A. But on the other hand, when A grades are handed out to students in a class who put in very different amounts of work, working hard at a class can seem unrewarding.”

History major Madhav Mehta PO ’12 emphasized the importance of fair grading.

“Though I’m unsure about how the new grading policy affects my chances of having a lower GPA, what matters to me is that it is a fair process,” he said. “As long as it gives deserving students good grades, then it’s good.”

Silverman said that he was aware of these fears, and wanted to reassure students that the new definitions were proposed for their benefit.

“This change is really designed to create a better learning environment at Pomona,” he said.