I Voted for the Cap on A’s. Here’s My Strategy for Implementing It.

After the cap on A’s passed, I had an exam anxiety dream. I was back in college, taking an exam that required, of all things, putting together a lego set. Click, click, click came from all around me, as the other students assembled their lego creations rapidly and with ease. Meanwhile, I stared at my loose pieces and despaired.

Why did I vote for the cap on A’s, knowing that it would, at least temporarily, increase exam anxiety (something with which I am very familiar)? Because the trajectory of grade inflation was unsustainable. For example, in philosophy courses in 2015-16, 30 percent of students got A’s. The next year it was 32 percent, then 33, 44, 41, 54, 58, 55, 59, 62, and last year, 66 percent. If this were to continue, grades would become meaningless. I know the cap has many downsides, and it may not be the best solution to the problem. But we had to try something.

One challenge faculty now face in creating assessments is to ensure that no more than 20 percent plus four get top marks, while also enabling everyone who does truly excellent work to get an A-minus. While the cap on A’s doesn’t go into effect until next year, faculty, especially in the General Education program, have been encouraged to implement it now. I teach GENED 1025: “Happiness,” and since last spring I’ve considered, and rejected, many ideas for how to do this. Here is my current plan. I’m sure it’s not perfect but it’s the best one I’ve hit on thus far.

Students will take a three-hour final, as well as two written exams during section. These exams ask students to explain the main ideas of the course accurately and in detail. Doing well on these exams is within reach of every hardworking, responsible, and talented student. Students will also take two multiple choice exams. These are challenging, and are intended to allow truly exceptional students — those who understand the material at an extraordinary level of depth and sophistication — to show what they can do.

Final grades are determined by a two-step process. First, each student’s final grade range, whether A-range or otherwise, will be determined by their scores on the written exams. Next, which grade they get within that range — for example, whether their A range grade is an A or an A-minus — will be determined by their scores on the multiple choice exams.

An A grade at Harvard is now essentially comparative. It indicates “extraordinary distinction” and will be restricted to a set percentage of students. There is, on the other hand, nothing essentially comparative about an A-minus. It indicates “full mastery of the subject” and work of “excellent quality.” In theory, this is something everyone could achieve.

My system enables students who do have full mastery of the material to get an A-minus, even if they perform poorly on the multiple choice exams. It frees me to include extremely difficult questions on the multiple choice exams without thereby jeopardizing the ability of all excellent students to get an A-minus. Another major advantage is that it does not disincentivize students from studying together for the written exams. Helping your friend do better on their written exam in no way affects your expected grade on that exam. The grading rubrics for these exams are not at all comparative. We have specific expectations for what excellent work looks like, and every student who meets those expectations will get a top score.

This system also gives me the freedom to do everything I can to help students learn this material. The easiest way to lower student grades is to make it harder for them to learn, which is exactly the opposite of what I want to do as a teacher. In “Happiness,” I choose main ideas that I think are important for students to know — ideas that I hope they will remember for decades. My goal is for as many students as possible to learn this material as well as possible. No doubt, many of them will fail to do so, will fail to produce excellent work, and so will receive a grade outside the A-range. But the point is that their doing so will reflect their own failure to meet certain objective standards, not anything essentially comparative.

Sometimes I dream of a world without grades — a world in which students learn for the pure joy and fun of it. As a former homeschooler, I know how magnificent this can be. At Harvard, we are not there yet. But as long as I’m teaching “Happiness,” I will be doing whatever I can to help as many students as possible produce excellent work, and, hopefully, to take some delight in the process.

Susanna Rinard is a professor of Philosophy.