The Perils Of Grade Inflation
The New York Post is reporting on a lawsuit filed by an NYU prof who says he was fired for giving actor James Franco a "D."
At my daughter's school, top marks are exceedingly difficult to earn. The kids seem more or less fine with it. They understand that As are only given for mastery of the material. The parents? That might be another thing.
And I get it, I really do. The first time I saw my daughter's report card, I practically cried. And this is before she gets to letter grades, which begin next year in Kindergarten. I was somewhat prepared from an incident a few years ago. I was sitting next to one of our teachers while we manned the Lutherans for Life booth at a local conference. Now, this woman is brilliant. She has a degree in Russian from Bryn Mawr. She's fastidious in all she does. Including grading. Here she was with a red pen, a lot of ink getting on the papers. I asked her what grade she taught. First. First grade! I might have coughed or something in response. She explained that, according to the Classical model we follow, there's no grade inflation or pretending that things are better than they are.
The New York Times commented wrote about it this summer:
Most recently, about 43 percent of all letter grades given were A’s, an increase of 28 percentage points since 1960 and 12 percentage points since 1988. The distribution of B’s has stayed relatively constant; the growing share of A’s instead comes at the expense of a shrinking share of C’s, D’s and F’s. In fact, only about 10 percent of grades awarded are D’s and F’s.
What's difficult, though, is to practice accurate grading in a world where most kids get As for showing up to class. And yet it's so important to teach kids the value of mastering their material. I'm glad we have that at our school, even if it is a bit of a punch to the gut when those report cards come home!
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Dec '10
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
When a C effort achieves an A grade it can be disheartening. The motivation to achieve is entirely removed from the process and the student receives much less from the experience. I know I felt this when I finally got around to finishing my degree a few years ago. In the first few classes I gave it my all and produced some pretty good work. I also received much more education from those classes than I did from the later ones where I only did enough to get by. I got the same result as far as my GPA was concerned, but I only got out of the classes what I put into them.
Dec '10
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
... even if it is a bit of a punch to the gut when those report cards come home!
This is why we need standard tests.
May '10
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
Ms. Hemingway - Your source materials are sparse and poorly footnoted. Anecdotal stories are not accepted as research. And remember all papers must be double-spaced and at least five pages long. We know you can do better. C-. (Don't make me call home!)
Dec '11
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
My first comment!
What a coincidence that the worst of the change happened between the mid 1960’s and early 1970’s and then a slow pronounced grind in the wrong direction since the mid 1990’s. Given the mess the made of their children, at what point should we reconsider the moniker of the “Greatest Generation”. It seems they had an historically great moment then proceeded to rest on their laurels.
Feb '11
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
My wife grades on a ruthless bell curve, backing up her results with mountains of documentation, as she has throughout her teaching career. Her course sections (grad and undergrad) remain popular, and when mommy comes to scream about her precious little dear's grade the defense is unassailable. This despite administrative pressure to pass everyone to keep them (ie their tuition dollars) in the program. Grade inflation is a function of teacher's and administrator's spinelessness, cupidity, and progressive ideology. Given the ideological bent of modern academia, it will be hard, if not impossible, to eradicate.
Edited on December 19, 2011 at 5:07pmApr '11
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
Molly, in the spirit of your article, I hereby give you an F in Web Editing 101 for linking to a Jonah Goldberg Corner post instead of the New York Post ;-)
Apr '11
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
It is not that C work has become A work. Rather B work has become A work, and what was C has been pushed to B. Everything is ratcheted up. Really I collages for this. The demand for people going to collage has pushed up the need for good grades, since collages want more people but refuse to lower standards. Thus giving high school children a C or a D or even lower is viewed as killing their ability to make it into a good collage...Would you kill some otherwise hard working but not to bright kids hopes at collage, when we now believe collage is key to future job success. It is a lot to ask of a teacher...so you fudge the numbers, cause you are nice, and don't want to ruin some poor kids dreams...I get it.
Dec '10
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
This is very relevant to me today. :)
Snow Bird: Given the ideological bent of modern academia, it will be hard, if not impossible, to eradicate. · Dec 19 at 8:05am
Edited on Dec 19 at 08:07 am
This is why we get standardized tests, because many teachers can't be trusted.
May '10
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
Does it make a difference that American schools swamp kids with trivial work? My school district called them "daily" grades, as opposed to "major" grades.
I've heard that in Europe, or at least Britain, there are very few grades. Would it help if the only grades were end-of-term exams and possibly mid-terms? That's not to suggest that those would be the only challenges... just the only graded challenges. Teachers can provide feedback without grading.
My question doesn't regard self-esteem. I just wonder if grading is really the best way to inspire excellence and punish failure. How was it done in America before the Department of Education?
Apr '11
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
My oldest son is experiencing some confusion because of grade inflation at our high school. For his first marking period he earned C's in honors English and AP HIstory. Both classes were challenging with really tough teachers who are actually preparing them for college level work. Fortunately he's brought his grades up with the understanding that these classes just demand more. Unfortunately, he opted for the standard bio class and he earns an effortless A there. We have conversations all the time about why the expectations differ and what will really be expected in college. The A in bio is a gimme - not really earned, and he knows that.
I know of kids with 4.0 GPA's who have stuggled in college because they didn't take the honors track and assumed the regular course work was enough. It wasn't.
Edited on December 19, 2011 at 6:09pmFeb '11
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
Aaron Miller:
How was it done in America before the Department of Education?
See 1940 on the chart.
Aaron Miller:
I've heard that in Europe, or at least Britain, there are very few grades. Would it help if the only grades were end-of-term exams and possibly mid-terms? That's not to suggest that those would be the only challenges... just the only graded challenges. Teachers can provide feedback without grading.
Subjective grading is a mine field in a litigious society. The student needs some sort of objective means of evaluating his progress. Verbal admonitions go in one ear and out the other, and then the student is shocked to get a D on the final. What is truly appalling is that many college level students can't even properly evaluate they letter grades they are receiving. For example, in a course where weekly quizzes count 40% and midterm and final count the remaining 60%, many students can't (or won't) do the math that will tell them that you can't fail all the quizzes and still pass the course (assuming 70% is required for passing).
Feb '11
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
One interesting observation. According to my wife, 90% of the extra credit work - optional work intended to help C's pull up to B's, D's up to C's - is done by the 5 to 10 % of the students who are already getting A's and don't need it. You may draw your own conclusions.
Edited on December 19, 2011 at 6:17pmJan '11
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
The classes in my current program of study are all ruthlessly curved, which I agree is an excellent preventative against grade inflation. Or would be, except that our curves are set such that the class mean is an AB (effectively an A-/B+). First year students are reassured "you can't get lower than a B" so regularly that a student wag recently wrote a song of the same title and performed it for our visiting prospective students.
Oct '11
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
Aaron Miller:
My question doesn't regard self-esteem. I just wonder if grading is really the best way to inspire excellence and punish failure.
This is my question as well. I don't think studying to the test is a whole lot better than slacking off; it focuses attention on what's easily tested rather than what's important. This is especially true in science: it's a lot easier to test and grade a procedure than an idea, but what communicates a better understanding? My senior design project from college was a great work portfolio for employers; I can't remember what grade we got on it, because our focus was on a deliverable, which has its own satisfactions outside the academic. It isn't practical to always base study around application, but that might be one way of diluting the importance of grades.
Oct '10
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
I've been wanting to post on this topic for some time. I've noticed that most of my classes involve substantial curves and it is expected as a matter of routine, especially if everyone did poorly. Even though my GPA is embarrassing I still feel a sense of guilt about getting curved up because I know I didn't do well enough. The most extreme curve I've seen is where there was a 20-point range for each grade and you only needed a 35% or 40% to get a D.
That being said, I think there is a problem on the teaching side of education too. Basically, our professors are horrible and incompetent. I think that curves are, in part, a correction for the poor quality of teaching and test-writing. I guess you can say it's the kind of teacher you'll get when you inflate the grades.
Nov '10
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
I detect the malign influence of Ben Bernanke somewhere...
Sep '11
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
The A's taper off in 1974, the year Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance came out.
Coincidence? That's when they started teaching "Quality".
Dec '10
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
I am totally appalled at the level of grade inflation I've seen over the 3.5 years my eldest has been in college. The curves are outrageous and when he does have a prof that grades tough, it's looked at as odd (at best), unfair, or discriminatory (at worst). The value of these degrees are falling or worthless for a very good reason. As parents we've failed (speaking in over generalization) to desire high standards for out precious darlings. K-12 institutions bought into the worst impulses of political correctness, psychology, and the ever-popular self esteem dictatorship. Colleges & Universities have transmogrified into the worst of all things: A business enterprise that benefits handsomely from increased revenue directly from subsidized student loans and a social enterprise designed to supply ideologically bankrupt, professionally unqualified labor (women's studies majors, African-American studies, gender studies, amongst many, many others) to private industry that neither values nor believes in their degree. All in an environment where, like government, the costs continually escalate. Beyond any reason thanks to a growing beast of administrators, counselors, and regulatory state requirements. It goes without saying that the very best, truly private institutions (Hillsdale, Patrick Henry, maybe Garden State) must be exempted from this rant. Simply put; as parents we are either blinded to the fact that our kids are nowhere near as smart as their GPA's lead us to believe and/or don't have the guts to pull them out of the system in sufficient numbers to change the equation. I know I probably won't.
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
Another reader pointed it out to me and I tried to correct it and put in another wrong link. I think I need a double F.
May '11
Re: The Perils Of Grade Inflation
Your daughter will get letter grades in kindergarten?
I'm still trying to wrap my head around the concept of kindergarten now being considered mandatory.