Grade Inflation - Possible Problems Associated With Grade Inflation

Possible Problems Associated With Grade Inflation

• Grade inflation makes it more difficult to identify the truly exceptional students, as more students come to get the highest possible grade.
• Grade inflation is not uniform between schools. This places students in more stringently graded schools and departments at an inequitable disadvantage.
• Grade inflation is not uniform among disciplines.
• Grade inflation makes it more difficult to compare students who took their exams at different times.

Princeton University took a rare stance against grade inflation in 2004, and publicly announced a policy designed to curb it. The policy states that A grades should account for less than 35 percent of the grades for undergraduate courses and less than 55 percent of grades for junior and senior independent work. The standard by which the grading record of each department or program is evaluated is the percentage of A grades given over the previous three years.

Arguments against taking action on grade inflation:

• Higher grades at some schools may reflect better performance than others (although with no national standard, there can be no way to compare one school to another by grades).
• Although grade inflation doesn't evenly distribute through departments, it is arguable, due to the subjective nature of grades, that interdepartmental grading practices were not equal in the first place (e.g. how is one supposed to determine the English equivalent of an A's worth of work in Physics?)
• Grade inflation may motivate less productive students to keep studying whereas countries with no grade inflation may discourage students from studying by demoralizing them.
• The US system still allows for students to thrive by offering courses with honors options as well as awarding valedictorians. Many companies in the US also look at GPA while selecting candidates.

Similarly, if one believes the purpose of a school is to better oneself and gain an understanding of the subjects, then one might not care too much if people are getting better grades than before, regardless of the cause. Indeed, it could be construed as a positive development since it might lessen the negative effects that some say grades have.

Arguments against its existence:

• Clifford Adelman, a senior research analyst for the U.S. Department of Education, reviewed student transcripts from more than 3,000 universities and reported that student grades have actually declined slightly over the last 20 years, in 1995.
• A report issued by the National Center for Education Statistics surveyed all 16.5 million undergraduate students from the year 1999-2000. The study concluded that 28.9% of graduated received mostly C grades or lower, while only 14.5% received mostly A grades. These results conform to grading based upon a normal distribution.