Report on Grading
The report on grading at Harvard College presents recent grade data and possible approaches to Faculty concerns about grade compression.
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Harvard College should be able to articulate and stand behind its approach to grading to ensure that we are measuring and rewarding what we value. The information in the report provides the FAS Faculty with the tools to act and to affirm an approach to grading that will reflect our shared commitments to academic freedom and transparent grading standards.
Report on Grading
In May 2022, in response to growing concerns among the Faculty over rising grades, former Dean Rakesh Khurana commissioned the Office of Undergraduate Education to compile a report on grading at Harvard College that presented recent grade data and possible approaches to addressing Faculty concerns. The resulting report confirmed grades have risen sharply over the past decade.
Recommendations
The Report on Grading was released in Fall 2023 and presented the following recommendations:
- Each year, the OUE will provide data to departments about median grades for courses in their department and across their division to guide departmental conversations.
- Faculty should engage in annual discussions of grading criteria and norms in their discipline and department. Each department should publish their approach to grading on a departmental website.
- Instructors should define their grading criteria for assignments based on learning objectives for their course and share the criteria with students.
- Harvard University Information Technology, Institutional Research, and the Registrar’s Office should collaborate on a grading dashboard in the Student Information System to allow faculty to readily access grading data across the FAS.
- The OUE and FAS will work with prize offices to expand prize criteria to include additional criteria beyond the GPA.
- The Mignone Center for Career Success and Office of Undergraduate Research and Fellowships should offer clear guidance and tutor training so as not to perpetuate myths about the role of grades in hiring and graduate school applications.
- The FAS should review the Q course evaluation questions and the role that quantitative scores play in high-stakes processes at the University, including reappointment, promotion, and tenure. There is a direct correlation between expected grades and Q ratings that may be contributing to trends towards higher grades.
- The OUE and Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning will retire teaching awards based solely on Q ratings for Teaching Fellows (TFs) and non-ladder faculty in favor of more substantive awards of teaching based on multiple measures.
- The Bok Center will offer workshops on assessing student work and training for teaching teams on effective grading.
- Finally, the faculty may wish to request further research to determine why grade compression is occurring, such as a survey of faculty and a review of assignments and grading in individual classes across the FAS.
Implementation
Since the initial Report’s release, a Grading Implementation Committee has worked with groups across the FAS to begin to reduce external pressures on grading and support transparency in giving feedback to students.
2023-2024
- Redesigned teaching prizes for graduate students and non-ladder faculty are no longer based on scores on teaching evaluations.
- Teaching awards that rely solely on Q scores (the Certificates of Distinction in Teaching for TFs, Teaching Assistants (TAs), and undergraduate Course Assistants (CAs) and the Certificates of Teaching Excellence for non-ladder faculty) were discontinued. This change reduced the pressure on TFs and other instructors to give higher grades and allowed instructors to engage more productively with student feedback.
- The OUE and the Bok Center developed a new teaching award for non-ladder faculty that is based on a range of criteria. Harvard Griffin GSAS is considering the possibility of expanding the Derek C. Bok Award for Excellence in Graduate Student Teaching to recognize and celebrate a larger number of GSAS students each year.
- The Bok Center launched a thank-a-teacher program, which enabled students to share a note of appreciation with a professor, TF, or other instructor.
- The Bok Center held focus groups and developed materials to guide faculty in creating grading rubrics that are aligned with course learning objectives. They also developed guidance for developing effective exams.
- The Program in General Education issued program-wide grading guidelines for faculty and students.
2024-2025
- Beginning in spring 2025, the OUE provided data to departments about median grades for their courses in their departments and across divisions to guide departmental conversations.
- Institutional Research, in collaboration with the OUE and the Registrar’s Office, launched a grading dashboard in spring 2025 that allows faculty to readily access grading data across the FAS.
2025-2026
In October 2025, the OUE released an update on grading and workload, following a review of grading trends and surveys of representative students and faculty. The report describes the current state of grading and workload at Harvard, shows the problems with our current practices, and suggests some changes the faculty might make to reverse the shift of rising grades.
In February 2026, the Subcommittee on Grading of the Undergraduate Educational Policy Committee recommended a system to address the external and internal challenges of grade compression:
- A 20%+4 cap on A grades: The Student Handbook recognizes an A grade as one reserved for work of “extraordinary distinction.” Harvard should return to this definition and giving it a quantitative interpretation – a 20% cap – to harmonize top grades across courses and departments. Because small courses attract advanced and highly motivated students, an additional four A grades can be allocated to each class to raise the effective cap for smaller courses (for instance, a course of 10 students may allocate up to 2+4, or 60%, A’s; a course of 100 may allocate 20+4, or 24%, A’s).
- Internal ranking: Letter grades compress information about relative student performance. Instructors should submit raw scores along with letter grades, and calculate internal honors using a student’s average percentile rank (APR) rather than grade point average (GPA).
Dean Amanda Claybaugh will hold Town Halls to discuss the Grading Policy Proposal with instructors and students on the following dates:
- Thursday, February 12, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. in the Cambridge Queen’s Head
- Tuesday, February 24, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m. in the Thompson Room of the Barker Center
Grading in the News
- Fifteen Questions: Amanda Claybaugh on Grade Inflation, Academic Culture, and Reforming Harvard’s Grading System
The Dean of Undergraduate Education sat down with Fifteen Minutes to discuss Harvard-Yale relations, Sidechat, and Harvard’s grading system….Continue Reading Fifteen Questions: Amanda Claybaugh on Grade Inflation, Academic Culture, and Reforming Harvard’s Grading System - We Hate to Admit It, But Dean Claybaugh is RightAfter decades of grade inflation, an A for excellence has become an A for effort. The College’s new report on grade inflation, while imperfect, makes clear that much-needed change is on the horizon. The current arrangement — with students working hard…Continue Reading We Hate to Admit It, But Dean Claybaugh is Right
- Harvard students think it’s unfair ‘when they work hard and don’t get an A,’ internal report says
Getting into Harvard is incredibly difficult. Getting an “A” in class once you’re there, on the other hand, is apparently so easy that an “A-” might as well be an “F.” For decades, Harvard administrators recognized that grade inflation is a problem that detracts…Continue Reading Harvard students think it’s unfair ‘when they work hard and don’t get an A,’ internal report says - We Need to Talk About Harvard’s Grade-Inflation Report
In our latest episode of College Matters from The Chronicle, we dive into a fascinating new report on grade inflation at Harvard College, which houses the university’s undergraduate program. Prepared by Amanda Claybaugh, Harvard University’s dean of undergraduate education, the…Continue Reading We Need to Talk About Harvard’s Grade-Inflation Report - Harvard College’s Grading System Is ‘Failing,’ Report on Grade Inflation SaysMore Harvard College students than ever are passing their classes with flying colors, but the College’s evaluation system is “failing to perform the key functions of grading,” according to a report released by the Office of Undergraduate Education on Monday….Continue Reading Harvard College’s Grading System Is ‘Failing,’ Report on Grade Inflation Says
- Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say
Many students don’t do the reading and don’t speak up in class, according to a report. Now, professors are trying to change a campus culture they say hurts achievement and stifles speech….Continue Reading Harvard Students Skip Class and Still Get High Grades, Faculty Say