Why is there Grade Inflation?

[DGS49]

I read recently that the AVERAGE high school graduate in the U.S. graduates with a QPA of 3.3. Essentially ALL Ivy League graduates graduate with some sort of "honors." Et cetera.

We all know the traditional grading standard, to wit,

• C is the average grade, with the majority of students getting a C;
• D is below average. but passing;
• B is above average (maybe 15% of students);
• A is outstanding (maybe 10-12% of students);
• A+ is reserved for possibly one person in a class of 25 whose work is so far and above their peers that a higher grade is appropriate.

This was basically the standard when I was in grade school (1955-63). In my selective parochial high school, the grading was quantitative, and not on a curve.

• 70-75% was a D;
• 76-84% was a C;
• 95-92% was a B;
• 93-99% was an A (there was no 100%).
• Below 70% was an F; many people got F's; many people (about 10-15%) failed out and had to go to the public high school.

The big grading issue at my school was whether a given teacher would "mark on a curve," that is, would give a normal spread of grades even if the student achievement was substandard overall. A few did.

I graduated slightly above the middle of my class with an 82% average, which you might know is a C.

My law school (Duquesne) had an honest grading system when I attended. C was average, and A was truly superior. There were a LOT of D's. And by the way, there was no "homework," only one research assignment in four years, and the ENTIRE grade for a course was determined by a comprehensive, written, quantitive exam at the end of each course. No pressure.

But a year after I graduated, responding to student/alumni pressure, every grade was adjusted upward by one so that our transcripts didn't look awful in comparison with other law schools (when applying for advance degree programs).

What does it say about our culture that implementing an honest grading system today would be absolutely unacceptable? I'm talking K-12 and college. Unacceptable.

Why? Does every student really think she is outstanding? Do they realize the absurdity of their grades? Do they know that it is teacher fraud to give everyone who is not a total fuck-up a B?

 

[wamose]

But if you're an outspoken conservative in a University today, you might just experience grade deflation, which is a totally different thing. I guess grades aren't an indicator of much of anything, even after paying a quarter million for them. Our education system is overpriced and underperforming.

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

I read recently that the AVERAGE high school graduate in the U.S. graduates with a QPA of 3.3. Essentially ALL Ivy League graduates graduate with some sort of "honors." Et cetera.

We all know the traditional grading standard, to wit,

• C is the average grade, with the majority of students getting a C;
• D is below average. but passing;
• B is above average (maybe 15% of students);
• A is outstanding (maybe 10-12% of students);
• A+ is reserved for possibly one person in a class of 25 whose work is so far and above their peers that a higher grade is appropriate.

This was basically the standard when I was in grade school (1955-63). In my selective parochial high school, the grading was quantitative, and not on a curve.

• 70-75% was a D;
• 76-84% was a C;
• 95-92% was a B;
• 93-99% was an A (there was no 100%).
• Below 70% was an F; many people got F's; many people (about 10-15%) failed out and had to go to the public high school.

The big grading issue at my school was whether a given teacher would "mark on a curve," that is, would give a normal spread of grades even if the student achievement was substandard overall. A few did.

I graduated slightly above the middle of my class with an 82% average, which you might know is a C.

My law school (Duquesne) had an honest grading system when I attended. C was average, and A was truly superior. There were a LOT of D's. And by the way, there was no "homework," only one research assignment in four years, and the ENTIRE grade for a course was determined by a comprehensive, written, quantitive exam at the end of each course. No pressure.

But a year after I graduated, responding to student/alumni pressure, every grade was adjusted upward by one so that our transcripts didn't look awful in comparison with other law schools (when applying for advance degree programs).

What does it say about our culture that implementing an honest grading system today would be absolutely unacceptable? I'm talking K-12 and college. Unacceptable.

Why? Does every student really think she is outstanding? Do they realize the absurdity of their grades? Do they know that it is teacher fraud to give everyone who is not a total fuck-up a B?

What decade in the last century did any of this occur?

 

[DGS49]

I attended K-12 from 1955-67. Minimal grade inflation. Not sure what was going on in the public schools, but none of my friends in public school graduated "with honors," and some of them were very intelligent and hard-working students.

 

[Tijn Von Ingersleben]

Education, especially at the collegiate level has been inflated in every category imaginable. There is/has been a mandate to increase the tent size. In order to do that, inflation was required as a reduction in standard was mandated.
I have a friend who grades papers (I refuse to call it instructing) at one of these online degree mills. He let me look at a few papers a couple years back from graduate students in management. The lack of quality was profound, basic grammar and spelling errors, lack of proper sentence structure. Some had literally no citations. It was an embarrassment.
Yes, I tell all of the young people I work with when they inquire to attend a trade school. Unless they are going to engage in a career (Law, Medicine, hard STEM) that requires a degree, they are better off in the trades.
University has become a joke.

 

[wamose]

With all the political aid $ floating around to buy votes, the higher education system had to either accept unqualified students, maybe inflating grades in the process, or raise tuitions just to eat up all that money. Probably a little of both. Just a theory.

 

[Dekster]

I read recently that the AVERAGE high school graduate in the U.S. graduates with a QPA of 3.3. Essentially ALL Ivy League graduates graduate with some sort of "honors." Et cetera.

We all know the traditional grading standard, to wit,

• C is the average grade, with the majority of students getting a C;
• D is below average. but passing;
• B is above average (maybe 15% of students);
• A is outstanding (maybe 10-12% of students);
• A+ is reserved for possibly one person in a class of 25 whose work is so far and above their peers that a higher grade is appropriate.

This was basically the standard when I was in grade school (1955-63). In my selective parochial high school, the grading was quantitative, and not on a curve.

• 70-75% was a D;
• 76-84% was a C;
• 95-92% was a B;
• 93-99% was an A (there was no 100%).
• Below 70% was an F; many people got F's; many people (about 10-15%) failed out and had to go to the public high school.

The big grading issue at my school was whether a given teacher would "mark on a curve," that is, would give a normal spread of grades even if the student achievement was substandard overall. A few did.

I graduated slightly above the middle of my class with an 82% average, which you might know is a C.

My law school (Duquesne) had an honest grading system when I attended. C was average, and A was truly superior. There were a LOT of D's. And by the way, there was no "homework," only one research assignment in four years, and the ENTIRE grade for a course was determined by a comprehensive, written, quantitive exam at the end of each course. No pressure.

But a year after I graduated, responding to student/alumni pressure, every grade was adjusted upward by one so that our transcripts didn't look awful in comparison with other law schools (when applying for advance degree programs).

What does it say about our culture that implementing an honest grading system today would be absolutely unacceptable? I'm talking K-12 and college. Unacceptable.

Why? Does every student really think she is outstanding? Do they realize the absurdity of their grades? Do they know that it is teacher fraud to give everyone who is not a total fuck-up a B?

A lot of law schools still grade on something close to a true curve. My guess to answer to your question as for k-12 is probably performance pressure placed on school systems to improve grades or lose funding. Cooking the books is just an easier way to do it. Nobody in my k-12 really used a curve. Many scaled grades which people referred to as a "curve". Basically the highest grade on a test in the class would get bumped up to an A and however many points it took to do that was added to everybody else's grades as well. So if someone actually earned an A on their own merit, they were often referred to as "blowing the curve for the rest of the class". A few teachers would lean in on the scale so if there was a student or two who were always high A students, they would scale off the highest grade of the non-straight A students.

 

[MisterBeale]

I am way more concerned with this Project Based Learning which has acclimatized whole new generations for socialism in public schools.

Project-based learning - Wikipedia

This makes those who do all the work become accustomed to carrying those who do no work at all.

All students in classes do work, and share all the grades. My kid has had to deal with it all through elementary and high school. Now that he is taking college courses where they do not do this? He loves being only responsible for his own work and not all the slackers in his class. . .

 

[Admiral Rockwell Tory]

I attended K-12 from 1955-67. Minimal grade inflation. Not sure what was going on in the public schools, but none of my friends in public school graduated "with honors," and some of them were very intelligent and hard-working students.

So, let's be honest. You were never in a position to determine if there was grade inflation in your education, which was 65 years ago.