Grade inflation occurs when students are not given grades based on their own merit, knowledge, or labor, but rather grades that are higher than they deserve or should be.
What causes grade inflation?
Grade inflation can be caused by a drop in academic standards, a rise in student achievement, or a combination of the two. Parents, students, and institutions can all put pressure on teachers to lower their standards. This is especially true because any school or teacher who takes a “hold out” position will put its students at a disadvantage if other schools or teachers are inflating grades. Some professors may feel compelled to give higher grades in order to avoid students complaining and earning poor course ratings, which could damage their reputation and lead to decreasing class enrollment. Professor Harvey Mansfield, for example, assigns two marks to Harvard students: an official inflated grade and an unofficial grade that he believes the student merits. Teachers’ course evaluations are frequently used by committees in making judgments concerning promotion and tenure. A teacher’s subpar reviews can be improved by enhancing their teaching, but the most obvious way to enhance evaluations is to provide higher grades on assignments and tests. According to Valen Johnson’s research, there is a statistical link between good grades and high course assessments. In a second study of grades at Penn State, grade inflation began in the 1980s, coinciding with the introduction of mandated course assessments.
During a 2003 introductory philosophy seminar at Swarthmore College, Professor Hans Oberdiek explained that grade inflation began in earnest during the Vietnam War draft. Students who have high enough marks may be excused from the draft; therefore, giving a student a C may result in his being sent to Vietnam. Professors, understandably, offered higher scores more freely in order to avoid having this disastrous outcome hanging over their heads. Professor Oberdiek recalled that before the war, “I used to give out Cs like candy.”
While there are pressures to lower standards, part of grade inflation at some schools and universities is due to gains in student performance. The quality of incoming students at some schools has improved over the last few decades, as assessed by SAT scores and high school class rank. However, SAT scores have remained stable at many colleges with growing grades. Even at colleges where SAT scores have improved, the extent of the GPA gain cannot be explained only by student SAT scores. Other factors are to blame for the rise in grades.
Increases in grades have been observed in several schools, which may or may not be related to a drop in academic standards.
There are different explanations for the rise in student grades through time, such as:
Today’s students are more concerned with career preparation, which means they are more likely to enroll in classes that match their skills.
Students have become more productive as a result of the use of computers.
Cooperative learning methods allow for feedback on assignments, which helps students improve their work.
Pass/fail choices are only used by a tiny percentage of students, which is insufficient to explain for reported increases in GPA.
Students must still complete distribution requirements, which means they must take coursework outside of their primary areas of interest.
Throughout the 1990s, when personal computers had already saturated higher education, grade inflation remained.
Cooperative learning methods aren’t widely used enough to account for reported GPA increases.
According to surveys of high school and college students, they are working less and are less involved in their studies.
A related point is that intelligence appears to be increasing over time (at least as assessed by the IQ scale), a phenomenon known as the Flynn effect. Students’ SAT results, on the other hand, have not been improving across the country.
What factors contribute to grade inflation?
Grade inflation (also known as grading leniency) occurs when students are awarded greater grades than they deserve, resulting in a higher average grade.
The word is also used to explain the trend of awarding ever higher academic grades for work that previously obtained lower grades.
Higher average grades, on the other hand, are not proof of grade inflation.
It must be demonstrated that the work quality does not merit the high grade for this to be grade inflation.
In the United States, as well as in England and Wales, grade inflation is commonly debated in regard to education, particularly GCSEs and A levels. Many other countries, including Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, South Korea, and India, have similar problems.
What exactly is grade inflation, and why is it important?
Prices can rise indefinitely with normal inflation. Grade inflation, on the other hand, occurs when grades are capped at A or A+, resulting in a higher concentration of pupils at the top of the distribution. Grades lose their validity as indicators of student talents as a result of this compression.
How do universities handle grade inflation?
While inflated high school grades may make college admissions more difficult, grades remain a strong predictor of college readiness, and admissions offices can change their GPA expectations or focus on class rank to accommodate applicants’ higher average GPAs.
Why is there grade inflation at Harvard?
Grade inflation was well-known, and graduate schools and companies were well aware of the problem. Employers were able to be informed by institutions that used more stringent criteria, and suitable translations were generally made.
Is there grade inflation in the Ivy Leagues?
RippleMatch discovered that Ivy League schools are the worst culprits of grade inflation, with typical student GPAs in the A/A- range. While there’s no denying that students at these schools work hard, it’s worth considering how skewed these averages are due to grade inflation, and whether comparing a 3.7 from Brown University to a 3.7 from Baylor University is fair.
Are university grades inflated?
The authors of the paper point out that the majority of factors that would ordinarily influence graduation rates are unfavorable. Despite the fact that net cost, state support, static academic preparation, higher enrollments, and students spending less time studying and more time working should all cut competition rates, they actually grew.
The researchers also found that, based on student-level data from nine prominent public institutions, liberal arts colleges, and other data sets, G.P.A. increased during the same time period and in a fairly consistent manner since the 1990s. If the two are closely linked that higher grades have enhanced college retention and completions during the 1990s then a considerable percentage of college graduates would not have received degrees over the past 20 years if grading had remained flat to 1970s and 1980s standards.
Significantly, the paper recognizes the connection, stating, “In our decomposition exercise, increasing grades explain, in a statistical sense, a majority of the improvements in graduation rates.”
Furthermore, the authors of the report stated that “increases in college GPAs cannot be explained by student demographics, preparation, or school variables.” Their statistics also “provide evidence that the increase in grades is consistent with grade inflation,” they write. “We find evidence that the increase in grades is due to grade inflation,” the paper continues, “and these findings, along with trends in student study time and employment, show that standards for degree receipt have changed as a result of grade inflation.”
Replication and verification, like with all research, will be critical – this is still a working article. Even so, it’s tough to look away from a report based on facts and evidence that claims degree standards have changed that is, have been degraded as a result of grade inflation.
The paper doesn’t go into detail on why grade inflation might be occurring, though it does mention a few elements that encourage it. Among them is the fact that instructors who offer higher grades or grade more liberally receive better feedback. And reviews are important, particularly if you’re an adjunct or contract lecturer whose contract is up for renewal on a regular basis. Similarly, courses and departments that are perceived as simple the easy As enjoy an increase in enrollment and revenue.
The variables that likely drive grade inflation and downstream inflated completion rates are only increasing, therefore this report is unlikely to affect much in higher education. Schools must boost enrollments in order to increase revenue. They must also ensure that a sufficient number of students who enroll graduate. This places a strain on costly intervention and support programs. It does, however, put pressure on grades and not in a positive way.
This report may help you win a bet or an argument outside of higher education. Grade inflation – receiving better scores for the same or less work is true, according to some pretty reputable people equipped with quite good information.
How many pupils receive perfect grades?
According to new study, 47 percent of high school seniors finished with a “A” average last year, up from around 39 percent in 1998.