Causes
Grade inflation is said to occur when higher grades are assigned for work that would have received lower grades in the past. Whether rising grades are a result of grade inflation or higher achievement can be difficult to discern and often can be determined only with systematic research.
The forces leading to grade inflation can emanate from parents, students, schools, exam boards, or politicians. Grade inflation may reflect underlying credential inflation.
If other schools or teachers are inflating grades, any school or teacher that takes a "hold out" stance will place its students at a disadvantage. Some educators may feel pressured to give higher grades for fear of students complaining and receiving bad course evaluations, thereby diminishing their reputation resulting in denial of promotion or tenure, or causing them to face lower enrolment in their classes. Course evaluations produced by the students in a class are often used by committees to help them make decisions about awarding the teacher promotion and tenure. A teacher may improve evaluations by improving their teaching, possibly by 'teaching to the test', or by giving higher grades for assignments and exams. A comprehensive study by Valen Johnson shows a statistical correlation between high grades and high course evaluations . In a separate analysis of grades at Pennsylvania State University, the onset of grade inflation in the 1980s corresponds with the onset of mandatory course evaluations. Where competition exists between exam boards for the same students the exam board can be tempted to make exams easier, by simplifying questions or narrowing the curriculum, this can attract more entries from schools who also have incentives to improve results.
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