In the K-12 world, grade inflation appears to be a similar problem, although the issue is less studied there. (Today, that number is lower, 60%, due to a cap set the following year, although the median GPA remains high at 3.67). At Harvard in 2001, 91% of students graduated summa, magna, or cum laude.
At Yale in 2012, 62% of grades were A’s, up from only 10% in 1963. There are also differences between private and public colleges, with private colleges having slightly faster rates of grade inflation than public colleges. According to Inside Higher Ed, this represents significant and steady growth: “At four-year schools, awarding of A’s has been going up five to six percentage points per decade and A’s are now three times more common than they were in 1960.” As a result, GPAs at four-year colleges have been rising at a rate of 0.1 points per decade and have been doing so for 40 years (another report with similar findings can be found here). One recent study found that 42% of grades assigned at four-year colleges are A’s, and 77% of grades are either A’s or B’s. On college campuses, grade inflation appears to be rampant. The interest in postsecondary grade inflation research is spurred in part by the fact that college professors are evaluated by their students, so there would seem to be a natural incentive for professors to grade leniently in order to keep their students happy. Today, studies of grade inflation are most common at the postsecondary level, where grade inflation has been an administrative concern for decades. Just how prevalent is grade inflation? It’s difficult to say for certain, but it appears to be a significant problem in American education. Grade inflation essentially overstates the real learning that a student has accomplished by giving high grades for mediocre work. Grade inflation, similarly, is defined as an artificial increase in grades over time-often because class assessments are too easy or teachers are too lenient. The term “grade inflation” is adopted from economics, which defines inflation as a situation in which prices rise independently of changes in the real value of products. What it means is, we don’t actually know how smart Johnny is. Not exactly holiday card material! But does this mean that Johnny isn’t as smart we thought? Not necessarily. In other words, Honor Roll now denotes average performance, and Johnny’s report card is no better than the report cards of 81% of students nationwide. Yet, according to national surveys, the average high school GPA in America is 3.0, and 81% of high school students receive mostly A’s and B’s in their classes. We’re very proud of him.īut before bragging about your child’s Honor Roll and buying a celebratory bumper sticker, consider this: To qualify for Honor Roll in most school districts, a student must have at least a B average (or approximately a 3.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale). On top of all this, he is getting mostly A’s and B’s, and he made the Honor Roll for the 7 th straight semester. (The winner was a kid in a wheelchair, so it’s hard to feel bitter about Johnny’s performance in the vote). He was the starting tight end on the football team and came in second in the voting for Homecoming King. Johnny is having a fabulous senior year of high school. A typical letter might go something like this: In fact, after the requisite work-a-day updates, these letters inevitably turn into essays about how wonderful the sender’s children are. New jobs, new cities, new houses, new partners, and of course, new children. It’s the time of year when holiday cards start appearing in mailboxes and distant friends and relatives take the opportunity to fill us in on the exciting new details of their lives.