Teaching Inquiry

September 22, 2026

When is it OK for Students to get an A for Effort? (Part 2): Variations of the “Achievement Equation”

I previously proposed a thought experiment connected to this question: What does it mean to earn a high grade in a college course? The experiment went like this: Let’s assume we can straightforwardly measure both the quality of what students produce in a course—meaning their exam scores, papers, discussions, and/or whatever other assignments the instructor… Continue reading
September 2, 2026

When is it OK to get an A for Effort? (Part 1): The Effort/Quality Matrix

I recently completed a nine-part series entitled “Grade Inflation is a Symptom, Not the Disease.” But if you have read any of these posts, you will know that this title was something of a bait-and-switch. I scarcely addressed grade inflation at all, arguing that people who complain about grade inflation are actually concerned about grade… Continue reading
August 3, 2026

Grade Inflation is a Symptom, Not the Disease (Part 9): Cultivating Assessment Literacy

Getting students curious and excited to pursue intellectual work they find meaningful. This is what any conscientious educator wants. But our institutions are structured in ways that largely impede such engagement with learning. This is the Core Conundrum of my blog. To make productive sense of this big C Conundrum, I have been breaking it… Continue reading
June 16, 2026

Grade Inflation is a Symptom, Not the Disease (Part 8): The Rigged Battle over Rigor

I began this series on grade compression (which is what people who howl about grade inflation are actually worried about), because I was vexed by the doublespeak in last year’s Harvard grade report. This report, high on self-aggrandizement and low on self-awareness, disingenuously claims that grades can support learning for all students and simultaneously sort… Continue reading
May 27, 2026

Grade Inflation is a Symptom, Not the Disease (Part 7): Harvard’s Plan to Save (the Sorting Function of) Grades

Throughout this blog series on grade compression, I have argued that: 1. The work of supporting students operates in direct conflict with sorting them, and 2. Society and formal education prioritize sorting. The idea that grades can differentiate students while meaningfully contributing to their learning is a convenient illusion, but the existential crisis compression has… Continue reading
April 25, 2026

Grade Inflation is a Symptom, Not the Disease (Part 6): Why Team Support Should Take Grade Compression Very Seriously

Lately, I have been reading Ursula K. Le Guin’s 1974 science fiction novel The Dispossessed, in which Shevek, a renowned physicist from an anarchist culture, comes to live in what is essentially a late capitalist society. Upon taking a university teaching position, Shevek finds his students stuck in a “pattern of cramming in information and… Continue reading
March 29, 2026

Grade Inflation is a Symptom, Not the Disease (Part 5): Harvard Gets Real about the True Purpose of Grades

The recent report Re-Centering Academics at Harvard College revealed that in 2025, As accounted for 60% of grades at Harvard’s undergraduate college. Because Harvard has outsized influence on conversations about higher ed, this report inspired a flurry of op-eds about whether the university has “gone soft.” These concerns have, unsurprisingly, focused on alleged grade inflation… Continue reading
February 23, 2026

Grade Inflation is a Symptom, Not the Disease (Part 4): Alternative Grading’s Role in Compression

In this series, I have been arguing that grade inflation, or the allegation that widescale grade increases have occurred absent corresponding learning and achievement gains, is a red herring. Whether grades are going up (and there is compelling evidence, if not definitive, that they are going up overall in higher education) because teaching techniques are… Continue reading
January 27, 2026

Grade Inflation is a Symptom, Not the Disease (Part 3): The (Irrational?) Exuberance of Alternative Graders

In this current series, I am exploring the tensions between two functions or philosophies of education: 1. That we should prioritize supporting all students’ learning and growth, and 2. That we should prioritize sorting the highest achieving students from the rest. I argue that the education system operates from the flawed, if mostly implicit, premise… Continue reading
December 29, 2025

Grade Inflation is a Symptom, Not the Disease (Part 2): The Specter of Grade Compression

In this subseries on the wicked problem of assessment, I am exploring the tensions between supporting the learning of every student and sorting students by levels of distinction and merit. I argued previously that: 1. Although the education system (and broader society) is more invested in sorting students, many teachers (like myself) are more invested… Continue reading

About Me

I’m an Associate Professor and Director of the Academic and Professional Writing Program at the University of Buffalo. Communicating with other teachers—whether they are long-timers or new to the job—about teaching is what I enjoy most about this profession. In creating this blog, I hope to have similar conversations with wider audiences of teachers.

–Paul Feigenbaum

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