THE GOOD, GRADE THE BAD INFLATION: AND THE UGLY
HAPPENINGS
By: Aviva Wang | Illustrated by: Angela Guo | Layout by: Jocelyn Ho Grade inflation has been an ever increasing issue in the American education system within the last few decades. It refers to an increase in a grade or grade point average (GPA), within a high school or a university, with no evidence that it has been earned. For instance, at Princeton University, A’s rose from 31% of course grades in the 1970s, to 47% in 2003. “Grades are not like temperature or weights,” Wayne Camara, former vice president of R&D at the College Board, says. “What constitutes an A or a B has changed, both in high school and in college.” Teachers are aware of the much fiercer competition within the world and try to help students by giving better grades. Moreover, the use of student ratings of teachers also inflates grades, as there now exists a culture where the studentconsumer is at the centre. Grade inflation is important because if high marks are easier to get than before, it could completely change the underlying value of degree attainment, or getting through school in general. While the causes of grade inflation are much debated, the impacts are equally important, if not more. This gives rise to the question: in what ways has the increased rate of grade inflation within the last thirty years affected the American education system?
There are more and more experts arguing that the American school system has seen a positive
40 XH26.indd 40
ISSUE 26
influence from grade inflation. This is due to the fact that it can support students to stick with their preferred majors, as well as the theory that universities would be more incentivised to make investments to improve the quality of their education. First of all, grade inflation can encourage students to stick with their preferred majors, often a better choice economically, rather than allowing them to be hindered by lower grades and any restrictions that may follow. For example, STEM courses tend to give lower grades than other fields of study, and at the same time, women are statistically more likely to switch their major if they receive lower introductory grades. With grade inflation, there may be a higher percentage of women motivated to enter these courses and earn STEM degrees, thus narrowing the concerning gender gap in such disciplines. In fact, a recent study by the University of Kentucky concludes that equalising grades among male and female students in STEM courses would shrink the STEM gender gap by over 10%. This demonstrates that grade inflation can positively impact students by allowing them to stick with their education despite its hurdles. Another example is the required grade boundary for taking an Economics course at the University of California, Santa
Cruz. At UCSC, students are only allowed to major in Economics if they have a minimum GPA of 2.8, or a B minus/B letter grade. While students who have not met this requirement are allowed to appeal to the school, most of them turn to the other social sciences for a major. The students who received GPAs not far from the 2.8 threshold were studied. Those who had GPAs lower than 2.8 were turned away, however, those who had GPAs slightly higher than 2.8 were accepted, despite the fact that these two groups of students had similarly low grades and skill levels. Although the students who turned to other majors were awarded higher average grades in those courses, the probability that they could have received an Economics major was neither higher or lower; they could have been successful in earning an Economics major after the four-year-long course. After all, an inflexible grade boundary does not and should not gauge the likelihood of an individual’s success after a four-year university course. However, not reaching the grade boundary, and thus not being able to take the course, had a significant impact on the students’ career prospects. Economics majors tend to earn more than majors from the other social sciences, and not being able to earn that major reduced early career wages by almost a third. In fact, those who had lower GPAs may have even been able to receive
XIAO HUA 27/5/2022 7:23 AM
