Grade of A

Today’s Numlock News reports that some faculty at Harvard are unhappy that so many grades at the end of a course are A.    The item reports from The Atlantic that 64% of the course grades were A.  I notice that when people are trying to name a college or university that has a reputation for high quality, they often name Harvard. If Harvard gets very high level students, doesn’t it make sense that most, if not every single one of them earns a high grade?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dwilDyXwbXG_vQm7vKpMA5HwTuUiiAEZ/view

The link leads to my chapter on ways of grading students.  A single symbol such as a letter grade can mean many different things.  Many people assume some sort of competition that results in those who ‘win’ getting the prize of the highest grade.  I recommend that some sort of clear arrangement be constructed about the grading method so that if a student wanted to get the highest grade offered, it would be clear just how to do that.  

To me, it is the meaning of the grades, the basis for giving them, that matters.