He got a B-minus. Which wasn’t so bad! He was only out-performed by 15% of his class: 5 B-pluses, 2 A-minuses, and exactly zero As. In contrast, a whopping 33% got a C or worse.
It turns out, JFK was already benefitting from grade inflation — the slow shift in the average grade point average in higher education — even in 1940. The chart below, borrowed from gradeinflation.com, shows that the average grade had gone up by 0.1 on a 4.0 scale between 1935 and Kennedy’s not-so-fateful grade report. Since then, however, has gone up another 0.7 points.
I’m well-known ’round campus for being a hard grader, but I’m no Professor Emerson.
Thanks to Matthew Beckmann for helping Kennedy’s paltry performance (I kid) see the light of day. And to Jay Livingston for bringing it to my attention. See also our post on pants inflation.
Lisa Wade, PhD is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of American Hookup, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender; and a forthcoming introductory text: Terrible Magnificent Sociology. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Comments 18
T — January 24, 2011
Isn't this a FERPA violation? :-)
Dylan Stafne — January 24, 2011
Alfie Kohn argues grade inflation is nonsense in "The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation".
http://www.alfiekohn.org/teaching/gi.htm
He could be wrong about the numbers. But his analysis of why grade inflation isn't a problem is excellent.
Jessie — January 24, 2011
Not one person got an A? Professor Emerson is harsh! Or maybe I'm just an easy grader.
Taylor Wray — January 24, 2011
Wow - cool post! I was a government major, and I kicked JFK's ass thanks to our modern-day grade inflation. Thanks and vote for me for president!
v — January 24, 2011
He got a B- in a old style grade spread with no as. That isn't too bad.
Lynne Skysong — January 25, 2011
Was grading really that much tougher 60+ years ago? Could part of the "grade inflation" actually be cause by students taking better advantage of academic classes, tutors, extra curriculars (like Science Olympiad), etc? I know some of these advantages cost money, but not all. A lot of them (for me anyways) were free (or very cheap) with my public school, and it was (largely) because of the extra work that I did so well in college.
Ang — January 25, 2011
If I even thought about giving out grades like this I'd get reprimanded for having terrible student evaluations.
Femke — January 28, 2011
for a moment I thought I was looking at my own grades XD
February 9, 1940 | Daily JFK — April 3, 2011
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