Grade inflation

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PRBWJB

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There was a comment in another thread about the high occurrence of grade inflation in our High Schools. I agree 100% and am flabbergasted at how many kids have 4.0 GPAs or higher. Is this a result of the "everyone gets a trophy" philosophy of education? I went to a large HS and only knew a few kids with a 4.0. I don't think I knew a single person in college with a 4.0. I was shocked a few years back when I was not he advisory team for a sorority at our local university and learned that many girls had a 4.0. Honestly, these women did not appear to be mental giants!

I hope and pray that my kids have truly earned their grades and will be well-prepared for a university education. I want them to be set up for true success, with all the ups and downs that come with it.

Thoughts?
 
Been the case for years across all educational levels. No child will be left behind, everyone is a superstar, teach to the test, get them out the door, tenure and the business of American education.



Recent HS grade inflation study:

www.american.edu

Study Focused on High School Grade Inflation Exposes Inequities

Grade inflation is a growing problem and one that is more prevalent in high schools attended by affluent students, according to new research by AU School of Public Affairs Associate Professor Seth Gershenson.
www.american.edu www.american.edu

WP article from a Duke prof that is 20 years old. Hit the nail on the head:

Stuart Rojstaczer: Where All Grades Are Above Average | Duke Today

today.duke.edu today.duke.edu


 
I believe there is much political pressure for there to be certain outcomes. This applies to ALL departments within a bureaucracy. Education, Police, Fire, Health. The pressure comes from the top down so the person at top looks good and can point to certain achievements by his departments. So on and so on. Somethings can't be fixed. Don't expect the police or teachers or counselors to show up and fix your kid in fifteen minutes after you messed them up the past fifteen years.
 
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My kids' HS doesn't use a GPA. Their grades are listed as a percentage, and it goes to the thousanths. The top 5% were separated by maybe a few hundredths. The class size averages 700 students each year. All these students had grades above 100% due to AP weighting. It was all incredibly over inflated.

There is another thread going on where a parent is worried about her son's grades at USNA, and she mentioned that she was surprised that he was struggling because he had great grades in HS. This is evidence that a HS GPA is not a clear indicator how prepared a student will be for college.
 
brewmeist said:
My kids' HS doesn't use a GPA. Their grades are listed as a percentage, and it goes to the thousanths. The top 5% were separated by maybe a few hundredths. The class size averages 700 students each year. All these students had grades above 100% due to AP weighting. It was all incredibly over inflated.

There is another thread going on where a parent is worried about her son's grades at USNA, and she mentioned that she was surprised that he was struggling because he had great grades in HS. This is evidence that a HS GPA is not a clear indicator how prepared a student will be for college.
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It was the USNA post that made me start this one - so unfortunate for that midshipman. I just hope the pendulum will swing back one of these days.
 
This also makes it extremely difficult for the admissions departments at the academies compare candidates. They seem to handle it well however some must slip through.
 
Unfortunately, many scholarships and grants are tied to unfactored GPA. With the cost of college tuition far outpacing normal inflation, there is pressure put on high schools to inflate grades.
Just to give an idea of how much universities have raised costs, I graduated from a prestigious private university in 1986. Tuition, room, and board was about $8,000/year. My first-year base pay as an O-1 was $15,600, or about twice my annual college costs. Today the cost of tuition alone at that university is $60,000/year. Base pay for an O-1 is now $40,600, or 67% of annual tuition alone.
I saw this with DD. She went to a private, college-prep high school that did NOT believe in grade inflation. This hurt her for some scholarships and grants.
 
Old Enlisted Marine said:
This also makes it extremely difficult for the admissions departments at the academies compare candidates. They seem to handle it well however some must slip through.
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It has to be a difficult process. Talk about apples-to-oranges.

I know colleges will weigh high schools, because they know a 4.0 at HS "A" is the same as a 3.75 at HS "B." And although some students are not great test-takers, the SAT and ACT exams do help to rank students, fairly or not.

But you are right... Some students will slip through. It's not a perfect system.
 
Let me think back to 1976. We celebrated the Bi-Centenial, Mr. Peanut won the presidential election, and my high school (a private one) came out with 3 tracks of classes:
General - for folks headed into the enlisted services, trades, or service industries. Dumbed down so everyone could get high Cs to low Bs.
College Prep - for folks headed to Junior college, or maybe a state 4 year. Average student in this track could expect to get around a 3.5 GPA without working super hard.
College Prep Honors - this was the inflated grade (An A was an A+. B was an A, etc.). Supposedly these classes involved a lot more work, and were for the students hoping to get into Service Academies, and "real" universities like Harvard, MIT, etc. If you were in the inside crowd who got these classes, you absolutely could expect to tell unis you had a 4.0 GPA.

Nothing new to see here.
 
Some random notes:
1) I think this is why we hear that the SA's attach a seemingly "unfair" weight on class rank, as that shows how well Applicant did against others within the same grading structure.

2) As others have mentioned, it isnt so much participation trophies, as it is game theory. If all schools graded "correctly" (ie, C is average grade per each class), then all would be well. But, if any one school grades higher, those students have a perceived benefit when competing, and any school who grades correctly but others higher, that one school's students are at a decided disadvantage. I saw this in business when company used standardized employee evaluations. One dept lead would always grade their employees much higher than another. If you only looked at the scores, it would appear they were better employees. We would add in a multiplier to try to normalize across depts.

3) Grades are arbitrary as it is. What makes getting 70% right a C and 90% right an A? Would you rather use a funds manager with a 70% success rate, or fly with a pilot having a 90% success rate? At some point, we need to recalibrate and get back to where A equivalent is a unicorn that only happens in rare cases. The curve should be bell shaped and not ski-slope shaped, or else there is no differentiator among the upper half.
 
I agree that grade inflation is happening. But especially at lower levels where kids can’t read or write but are passed through the system.

But we shouldn’t assume all students with great grades were because of grade inflation. I know my son earned his grades.
 
A1Janitor said:
I agree that grade inflation is happening. But especially at lower levels where kids can’t read or write but are passed through the system.

But we shouldn’t assume all students with great grades were because of grade inflation. I know my son earned his grades.
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Yep, my youngest daughter dropped all the AP classes with inflated grades and still maintained her 4.0.

Problem is as old as the world.
 
Grade inflation isn't limited to high schools. One student at a prestigious college informed me that he routinely negotiated grades with professors. If he didn't get the grade he wanted on an exam or paper, he simply explained to the professor why he deserved a higher grade and usually got it.

Good preparation for his future career I guess - he is now in law school.
 
I am keyboarding this from a once proud and highly ranked school district. We are now falling in line with the others.

My school this year has us grading on the 4.0 scale with no option to give a 3.5 or any other grade except zero through four. 4 is an A and 3 is a B. The principal says the entire district will be doing it soon. The disproportionate number of "black and brown students," her words, led to this choice. Too many students were victims of the arbitrary 100 point scale and this grading scale provides equity we have been told.
 
OldAFRet said:
Yep, my youngest daughter dropped all the AP classes with inflated grades and still maintained her 4.0.

Problem is as old as the world.
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I personally don’t like the 4.0 system. In our school, you get an unweighted grade based on 100. My son graduated with a 99 average unweighted - taking all AP and honors courses offered.
 
Devil Doc said:
I am keyboarding this from a once proud and highly ranked school district. We are now falling in line with the others.

My school this year has us grading on the 4.0 scale with no option to give a 3.5 or any other grade except zero through four. 4 is an A and 3 is a B. The principal says the entire district will be doing it soon. The disproportionate number of "black and brown students," her words, led to this choice. Too many students were victims of the arbitrary 100 point scale and this grading scale provides equity we have been told.
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So, that sounds like you must score 3 through 4 only to help with equity...
 
Empirical evidence provided that GI exists at all levels but the typical conjecture and anecdotal stories rule the day.

The Interwebs win again.
 
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