Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

Here is a New York Times story about grade inflation in higher education. My university defines the letters "A," "B," "C," "D," and "F" as follows: excellent, good, fair, passing/below average, and failure. I assign grades accordingly. As I explain on the first day of each course, there is no reason, in principle, why every student cannot receive an "A." But there is also no reason, in principle, why every student cannot receive an "F." My goal as an instructor is to do justice, which consists in giving each person his or her due. There are two kinds of injustice in this context: (1) giving a student a better grade than he or she deserves; (2) giving a student a worse grade than he or she deserves. I might add that desert is a function of performance, not merely effort. It's not enough that you study hard; you must manifest that hard study.