<p>ModestMelody – you are describing a use of grades different from what I think 90% of teachers and students expect.</p>
<p>As a practical matter, you are describing 3,500 different criteria for what a grade means… each professor at each university will have their own standard of achievement appropriate to A, B, etc. The only way I can think of around this is the High School AP type test, which purports to test every student in the US against the same standard of knowledge no matter where taught.</p>
<p>At least if a grade represents a comparison of performance of students within a partular class, then all one has to do as an outside evaluator is to draw some simple conclusions: "Let’s see now… Student A got a B in x class at Bowdoin… OK, I know the quality of student at Bowdoin, so I know what that means. Student B got an C in the same x class at Brown. OK, I know ht quality of student at Brown, and I know how they grade, so I know what that C means. And so on.</p>
<p>There are many areas of evaluation in business, sport, the arts, where there simply are no fixed standards of achievement. There are some, though. The CPA exam is an example. Certain examps for professional designations. I just don’t see how 3,500 professors all teaching introduction to Modern Economic Theory can have a set standard common to all 3,500 classes offered in all US Universities so that the grade in that course compares to a grade granted anywhere else that course is offered.</p>