Grade Inflation and Abolishment
Times Higher Education, a news site for the UK, published a few days ago an article that challenges an age-old notion: What is the purpose of grading? Is it fundamental, necessary? The article says no. “Abolishing grades may expose students to greater self-knowledge,” quotes John Summers.
Stepping back several generations, college grades looked drastically different than they do now. C was the average, B was above average, and A was drop-dead stellar. Now there are employers that are demanding their college students to apply for 3.5 GPA averages (B+ across all their classes) for modest salaries. A C-average bachelor’s degree is the new high school diploma. A look at classroom performance reveals more A students than ever before.
A commenter to Times Higher Education, Dr. Gyro, remarks:
I have a possible answer to the grade inflation/compression problem – it seems we are bumping our heads at the top – we can’t just keep adding stars or plusses after the As. We could start again, so that the grade above A+ is actually Z, or we could simply allow an extra character, so that we have AA, AB, AC and so on. In this way, if grades are indeed getting better, there should be no imposed ceiling to students’ attainment. On the other hand, they could never actually get to the top, since there isn’t one…
Grade inflation? That’s right; that’s exactly what it’s being referred to.
Just as how the cost of a product rises, so does the cost of the profession required to back that product, and so employers keep demanding their 3.5 GPA students, and students keep rolling out with B+ to A average degrees. Pretty soon, the penny-equivalent F will be all but obsolete.
Magna Cum Laude, Summa Cum Laude, Cum Laude. In 1988, Yale University had 46% of their class graduate in these categories, a stifling rise from their 3% sixty years prior. With grade inflation, imagine the scenario now!
Some experts agree with Summers and are suggesting removing grades from the education system altogether. Some form of measurement has to keep education in check, however, even if subjectivity and interpretation are going to enter the picture and ruin the grading system, and so several schools have adapted the Pass-or-Fail regimen. These systems offer students an “H” for being “held,” rather than a failing grade. Critics claim that the subjectivity takes away from the value of education and undermines the process.
If grades are undergoing inflation, and there’s no replacement for the grading system in site, what happens then? Remember when you go to college, that whistling the “C’s get degrees” song is an old fashion that does not apply anymore–B is the new C!
One comment
I had never heard of such a thing as grade inflation. This was really eye opening, thanks for sharing this article.