I suggested that student evaluations were, on the whole, a contributing factor to grade inflation — as they have been to other types of deterioration in the academy, such as easier course content — and I stand by that, despite Ken Winter’s letter below.
I don’t know why such an obvious observation is even questioned, but for some reason a certain segment of conservatives as well as most liberals want to believe that students know best. Possibly, too, the relative objectivity of the numerical assessments are helpful to administrators when so much of less measurable value has been lost.