Is Grade Inflation Bad?

Grades Went Up. Learning Didn't.

Write first: what do you already know, or wonder, about grading standards?

Two terms you'll need. Unweighted GPA is the plain version — A is 4.0, D is 1.0. Weighted GPA adds a point for honours and advanced classes, so an A there is a 5.0. Grade inflation means giving higher grades than were previously given for the same quality of work.

Then the chart the whole week depends on: the distribution of college letter grades over time. C used to be the most common grade. A was rare, and meant something unusual. That's completely reversed.

The obvious objection is that students are just better now. Researchers tested it — they found courses at one college with nearly identical requirements and tests across ten years, and compared. Same test scores. Higher grades. They also checked whether students working jobs or better high school preparation explained it. Neither did.

Then you'll put rising high school GPAs next to NAEP scores, which is a national test designed to track how much American students actually know. If grades climb while that stays flat, grades are measuring something other than learning.

And then the causes, which are genuinely strange:

• The Vietnam draft. Male college students could avoid being drafted as long as they were passing their classes. A lot of professors didn't want to hand out a failing grade that might send someone to a war. Some schools never went back.
• Students as customers. College costs enormously more than it used to, and colleges compete hard for students. If you're paying that much, it starts to feel like you bought the degree — and colleges have their own reasons not to seem too hard to pass.
• Professor evaluations. Student ratings affect whether a professor gets promoted, gets paid more, or gets to teach the class again. Grading hard can cost you.
• College admissions. Good colleges want a 3.5 unweighted; elite ones want close to 4.0. Teachers know that, and know a lower grade might hurt someone's chances — and that a lower grade might mean an argument with a parent.

Your Quotes, and the Signal Problem

Free write first: think about how grades make you feel, and then about what the data says they actually mean. Those two things have drifted a long way apart.

Then fifteen minutes in a breakout room sharing the quotes you pulled. Since you each read a different pair, listen for what the other readings said.

Then a research abstract (10 minutes). The question is whether inflated grades make students work less. Two things to discuss:

• What does the study actually conclude?
• If an A is easy to get, maybe the motivation isn't earning a good grade anymore — maybe it's avoiding a bad one. Is that a different kind of motivation? Does it work as well?

Then the real problem with everyone getting As. If most people get As and Bs, how does anyone tell the genuinely exceptional students from the merely good ones? You already know the answer, because you're living it: test scores, extracurriculars, portfolios, competitions. Grades stopped carrying enough information, so everything else had to.

Though there's a case on the other side too — being pushed to prove yourself in ways other than grades might not be a bad thing.

What Is a Degree Actually Worth?

Mindful moment first, and it's a good one: write a haiku about lobsters in space and put it in the chat. Then the serious part.

There's a Harvard professor who gives every student two grades — the official one that goes on the transcript, and privately, what he actually thinks of the work. You'll hear him explain why.

Then the numbers:

• Between 1990 and 2010, the six-year college graduation rate rose from 52% to 59.7% — and a study concluded that most of that rise was grade inflation, not students doing better.
• Average lifetime earnings with some college but no degree: $1.9 million. With a bachelor's: $2.8 million.

So here's the question. Is a degree worth more because of what you learned — or because of what it signals to an employer? If it's mostly a signal, and the signal is getting weaker, that $900,000 gap gets harder to explain. Should those numbers be closer together?

Before you leave, find a resource to bring on Thursday.

Design a Better System

Free write on the best question of the week: if you designed a grading system, what would it be?

Then share your resource and pick one a classmate found.

When you design your system, hold it to the standard the current one failed. Does it tell an exceptional student apart from a good one? Could different teachers apply it the same way? What would it make teachers want to do? And who does it make life harder for?

Score Your Own Week

What went well, what to improve, what you learned, and whether anything you believed changed. Then the participation matrix. Be honest with yourself.