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<p>That would be ideal. However, there are data that speak to the “grade deflation” question.</p>
<p>I have cited it previously, search “afan” and the following topics:</p>
<p>Berkeley grade distribution. UC Berkeley has published its grade distribution. It shows that the vast majority of grades assigned are A’s and B’s. There are very few F’s.</p>
<p>[Undergraduate</a> Education Colloquium, The College of Letters and Science, UC Berkeley](<a href=“http://ls.berkeley.edu/undergrad/colloquia/04-11.html]Undergraduate”>http://ls.berkeley.edu/undergrad/colloquia/04-11.html)
“Of 79,791 undergraduate course grades given at UC Berkeley fall 2003, almost 50% were A’s, approximately 35% were B’s, and less than 5% were D’s or F’s.”</p>
<p>Princeton grade distribution. Princeton has published its grade distribution. It shows that the vast majority of grades assigned are A’s and B’s. There are very few F’s.
[Felten</a> analysis refutes grade inflation claims - The Daily Princetonian](<a href=“http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2004/04/23/10392/]Felten”>http://www.dailyprincetonian.com/2004/04/23/10392/)
[Princeton</a> University - grading_proposals](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/~odoc/grading_proposals/index.html]Princeton”>http://www.princeton.edu/~odoc/grading_proposals/index.html)</p>
<p>The UCB and Princeton grade distributions are strikingly similar.</p>
<p>UCB and Princeton publish their SAT scores for their students. The SAT scores are strikingly different. </p>
<p>Berkeley
Critical Reading Middle 50%: 580 - 710
Math Middle 50%: 630 - 760
Writing Middle 50%: 600 - 720</p>
<p>Princeton
Critical Reading Middle 50%: 690 - 790
Math Middle 50%: 700 - 790
Writing Middle 50%: 690 - 780</p>
<p>Look carefully at these scores. It takes a 590 CR to get down to the bottom quartile at UCB. Meanwhile one hits the top quartile at 701. But bottom quatile at Princeton starts at 690, which is close to the top quartile from UCB. This differences are nearly as striking for the writing test, what ever it tells us.</p>
<p>Math is not as extreme, but there is still a large proportion of students at UCB who would be in the bottom quartile, and for many far far down in the bottom quartile, at Princeton.</p>
<p>SAT correlates highly with academic performance. </p>
<p>So we have two colleges, one with a much higher academic ability student body than the other. They have similar grade distributions.</p>
<p>Where is the evidence of grade inflation at Princeton or deflation at UCB? This looks to me more like harder grading at Princeton than at UCB.</p>