It was only recently that I was introduced to the concept of “grade inflation”.
When I was visiting my grandmother, as a junior in high school, I was so excited to tell her about my newly acquired 4.1 GPA. However, her reaction was not the kind I had hoped for – instead of cheering, she shared her frustration with today’s education system and its “inflated” grades.
At the time, I was rather upset by this, and didn’t look into it too much. However, I have recently looked into the concept more in depth and I see it as something sweeping throughout the education system, for the K-12 school system and colleges alike.
Grade inflation is the concept of making a higher grade more easily attainable. As a result of this, students may not be driven to put effort into their classes, or even to meet the standards, causing students of today to be less intelligent and motivated than the students from decades ago. If their good grades are easy to get, what’s the point of effort?
For example, one study shows that at all universities, GPAs have risen from an average of 2.93 to a 3.11 in just the last 20 years. Is this the result of more intelligent, higher achieving students, or from universities inflating grades? In addition, the average high school GPA has increased. However, the preparedness for college among first time freshmen has decreased. Is this a sign of grade inflation?
At first, I figured that students could have grades well over a 4.0 because, well, as highly intellectual people of today, we had gone above and beyond the 4.0. The 4.0 was just too easy to reach, so we needed to go beyond it.
However, I spoke to my parents about this and they brought up an interesting idea. When they were in school, the glass ceiling of the GPA was the 4.0, and usually only the valedictorian had this GPA. They had advanced classes, but there was no weighting. Should all schools just ditch weighted grades, and go back to the 4.0 scale? If we keep encouraging weighted grades, are we going to look at everything from a 5.0 scale?
What if that isn’t enough, will we go even higher? Where would we stop, a 6.0 GPA?
Even without the weighted grades and the new “glass ceiling” of the GPA, grade inflation is still possible. It is only human nature that at some schools, it is easier to attain the “A” than at others.
I know you and I both would like to think that we earned our grades fair and square… But did we? Are we, as Foothill students, subjected to grade inflation? I personally feel that students at Foothill do not have inflated grades. Foothill, as a school, has high pass rates on AP tests, and high standardized test scores to prove that students achieved their grades through hard work, and are meeting the standards. However, I am not sure if I feel the same way about other high schools in the district.
At times, I question whether or not the students at Ventura or Buena High School would achieve the same grades if attending Foothill; these schools have lower pass rates on AP exams, and lower test scores.
Overall, I find grade inflation to be incredibly frustrating. I feel that teachers should be less concerned about passing their students, and more concerned about whether or not the students know the material.
