Has Grade Inflation Prompted a Grade Recession?
In the education industry, one common topic of angst amongst some teachers is a phenomenon that has come to be known as "grade inflation." Like so many difficult to define social phenomenon problems, it is expressed in metaphorical terms to help the layperson quickly understand it.
What is Grade Inflation?
Not too terribly long ago, grading based on a 100 point scale, often considered percentile grading, was universally aligned so that tasks students complete to earn those points produce percentiles based on student achievement that would accurately indicate student performance based on the following continuum:
90 - 100: Performance close to perfect, exceptionally proficient, a small number of students best at the craft
80 - 90: Performance at or just above average performance, a large number of students comfortably proficient at the craft
70 - 80: Performance at or just below average performance, a large number of students performing adequately at the craft but who should benefit from continued strengthening to reach at least a comfort level
60 - 70: Borderline performance demonstrating some real question to whether the student understands and can apply successfully to the craft, about half of whom could be assumed to barely pass minimal ability but should definitely warrant further growth
50 - 60: Students demonstrating enough craft familiarity to beat the "random odds" of someone purely guessing, but not at all grasping the craft well enough to be considered a practitioner and pass.
50 and below: Students who make an attempt at their craft, even an honest and complete attempt, but who fail to grasp enough familiarity with its features to beat the "random odds" of someone purely guessing.
This was a good way to do things, because it meant that the numerical score a student is achieving can be interpreted by any outside observer to gain insight into their level of proficiency in the desired craft. However, in recent decades, a phenomenon has occurred in which grades have gradually increased and increased, and student expectations of the grade their work has garnered has likewise increased in concert; today, students link their grades too often to effort rather than skill proficiency, and expect a grade in the 90s (or at least upper 80s) when completing an assignment, regardless of quality, just because they completed it.
This is largely the fault by educators, who promogate this problem by awarding grades under that bizarre philosophy. Don't be too angry with us, though - there are reasons for this. One of the largest relates to the simple quantity of work submitted... I know from personal experience in the past and from my colleagues that, in the settings of some classes, it is not unusual for large portions of a class to not even complete an assignment, meaning that a teacher is automatically "failing" a third of the class before grading one assignment, and then feels the need to reward students who try with high grades. Within the grading scales of a great many educators these days are portions of grade credit given for attendance or basic participation in manners that do not demonstrate any skill or achievement.
So, What is a Grade Recession?
Following the metaphor, one can compare the effect of devalued grades to the effect of devalued currency. In both cases, output drops off and opportunities stagnate. In grade inflation, the end result "recession" is that grades no longer reflect who is proficient, who is very good, and who is outstanding, leaving no way to differentiate. Of course, a second result is that some inexperienced educators, I believe, allow expectations overall for their students to drop and drop and drop until they meet student performance, rather than demanding that student performance rise and rise and rise until it meets expectations.
Last year, one Ivy League college tried to combat grade inflation (to very limited success) by enacting a strange quota measure in which teachers were to make sure that their grades fit, within a certain limited for deviation, within a desired range and proportion - they expected a certain percentage of As, Bs, Cs, Ds, and Fs. While I disagree that this is a reasonable approach (nobody's class is "average," and it puts undue pressure on teachers who turn out to have a great class one year to unethically mis-serve them by artificially devaluing the grades of some), I appreciate the underlying frustration, and I am glad that it prompted, for a time, open discussion of this phenomenon and problem.
The Only Fix: A Steel Will
Sadly, it is my opinion that there is only one way to correct this problem, and the measure is both difficult (because it will be painful for educators) and impractical (because it requires committed unity amongst educators). The measure: agree, as a profession, to re-committ our grading scale to something more stringent, which awards the average majority of proficiency only a 75 - 85, and reserves the higher grades for the exceptional few.
There are plenty of challenges that make this so difficult. First, it requires the cooperation of your colleagues, who can be (at times) stubborn in their ways). Why the cooperation need? Because if your average students are working equally proficiently in your class and in others, but their grades show 90s in their other classes and an 80 in yours, it is you whom will receive the wrath and backlash. A large part of the equation are parents, who need to understand and change their reactions to grades accordingly as well - this reform would yet never work if all else happens but parents are visiting undue stress on their children for achieving an 83 (in the case of average students, of course).
On a limited basis, the microchosm of a single school community, given complete cooperation and buy-in by staff, students, and parents, could make the transition of this type of reform... but then find their students mis-served through injustices beyond their own school, as colleges compare their hard earned 85 to the "soft" 90 of inferiorily skilled peers at other schools, and choose the other candidate.
The school in which I currently work has some classes which are allowing this reform by virtue of another, almost unrelated development. Now running the International Baccalaureate program, our school "weights" the grades given in those classes. This is intended to free educators to hold high expectations of their students without worrying that those high expectations will unduely hurt their grade in comparison to others; the effect is that educators teaching one of these classes are also now freed, to a certain extent, to change the grading philosophy with their students, at least on a limited basis, so that their students know to expect only an average grade for average skill proficiency. It isn't easy, though - as a teacher of one such course, I have to constantly remind myself to maintain high expectations despite lower student grades, reminding myself that I am not "hurting" my students by doing so, but rather helping them to get a more accurate and honest assessment of their skills.
A Puzzle I Can't Solve
Honestly, though, I'm perplexed. I don't know, in a realistic sense, just what can be done. How can we make high grades mean something again (other than a pulse and a willingness to put in effort)? Is it even important enough to change? Who knows. All I do know is that, at this rate, following the metaphor, I can't help but imagine that if grades did work just like currency, te maximum grade would have been increased to 135 by now.
What is Grade Inflation?
Not too terribly long ago, grading based on a 100 point scale, often considered percentile grading, was universally aligned so that tasks students complete to earn those points produce percentiles based on student achievement that would accurately indicate student performance based on the following continuum:
90 - 100: Performance close to perfect, exceptionally proficient, a small number of students best at the craft
80 - 90: Performance at or just above average performance, a large number of students comfortably proficient at the craft
70 - 80: Performance at or just below average performance, a large number of students performing adequately at the craft but who should benefit from continued strengthening to reach at least a comfort level
60 - 70: Borderline performance demonstrating some real question to whether the student understands and can apply successfully to the craft, about half of whom could be assumed to barely pass minimal ability but should definitely warrant further growth
50 - 60: Students demonstrating enough craft familiarity to beat the "random odds" of someone purely guessing, but not at all grasping the craft well enough to be considered a practitioner and pass.
50 and below: Students who make an attempt at their craft, even an honest and complete attempt, but who fail to grasp enough familiarity with its features to beat the "random odds" of someone purely guessing.
This was a good way to do things, because it meant that the numerical score a student is achieving can be interpreted by any outside observer to gain insight into their level of proficiency in the desired craft. However, in recent decades, a phenomenon has occurred in which grades have gradually increased and increased, and student expectations of the grade their work has garnered has likewise increased in concert; today, students link their grades too often to effort rather than skill proficiency, and expect a grade in the 90s (or at least upper 80s) when completing an assignment, regardless of quality, just because they completed it.
This is largely the fault by educators, who promogate this problem by awarding grades under that bizarre philosophy. Don't be too angry with us, though - there are reasons for this. One of the largest relates to the simple quantity of work submitted... I know from personal experience in the past and from my colleagues that, in the settings of some classes, it is not unusual for large portions of a class to not even complete an assignment, meaning that a teacher is automatically "failing" a third of the class before grading one assignment, and then feels the need to reward students who try with high grades. Within the grading scales of a great many educators these days are portions of grade credit given for attendance or basic participation in manners that do not demonstrate any skill or achievement.
So, What is a Grade Recession?
Following the metaphor, one can compare the effect of devalued grades to the effect of devalued currency. In both cases, output drops off and opportunities stagnate. In grade inflation, the end result "recession" is that grades no longer reflect who is proficient, who is very good, and who is outstanding, leaving no way to differentiate. Of course, a second result is that some inexperienced educators, I believe, allow expectations overall for their students to drop and drop and drop until they meet student performance, rather than demanding that student performance rise and rise and rise until it meets expectations.
Last year, one Ivy League college tried to combat grade inflation (to very limited success) by enacting a strange quota measure in which teachers were to make sure that their grades fit, within a certain limited for deviation, within a desired range and proportion - they expected a certain percentage of As, Bs, Cs, Ds, and Fs. While I disagree that this is a reasonable approach (nobody's class is "average," and it puts undue pressure on teachers who turn out to have a great class one year to unethically mis-serve them by artificially devaluing the grades of some), I appreciate the underlying frustration, and I am glad that it prompted, for a time, open discussion of this phenomenon and problem.
The Only Fix: A Steel Will
Sadly, it is my opinion that there is only one way to correct this problem, and the measure is both difficult (because it will be painful for educators) and impractical (because it requires committed unity amongst educators). The measure: agree, as a profession, to re-committ our grading scale to something more stringent, which awards the average majority of proficiency only a 75 - 85, and reserves the higher grades for the exceptional few.
There are plenty of challenges that make this so difficult. First, it requires the cooperation of your colleagues, who can be (at times) stubborn in their ways). Why the cooperation need? Because if your average students are working equally proficiently in your class and in others, but their grades show 90s in their other classes and an 80 in yours, it is you whom will receive the wrath and backlash. A large part of the equation are parents, who need to understand and change their reactions to grades accordingly as well - this reform would yet never work if all else happens but parents are visiting undue stress on their children for achieving an 83 (in the case of average students, of course).
On a limited basis, the microchosm of a single school community, given complete cooperation and buy-in by staff, students, and parents, could make the transition of this type of reform... but then find their students mis-served through injustices beyond their own school, as colleges compare their hard earned 85 to the "soft" 90 of inferiorily skilled peers at other schools, and choose the other candidate.
The school in which I currently work has some classes which are allowing this reform by virtue of another, almost unrelated development. Now running the International Baccalaureate program, our school "weights" the grades given in those classes. This is intended to free educators to hold high expectations of their students without worrying that those high expectations will unduely hurt their grade in comparison to others; the effect is that educators teaching one of these classes are also now freed, to a certain extent, to change the grading philosophy with their students, at least on a limited basis, so that their students know to expect only an average grade for average skill proficiency. It isn't easy, though - as a teacher of one such course, I have to constantly remind myself to maintain high expectations despite lower student grades, reminding myself that I am not "hurting" my students by doing so, but rather helping them to get a more accurate and honest assessment of their skills.
A Puzzle I Can't Solve
Honestly, though, I'm perplexed. I don't know, in a realistic sense, just what can be done. How can we make high grades mean something again (other than a pulse and a willingness to put in effort)? Is it even important enough to change? Who knows. All I do know is that, at this rate, following the metaphor, I can't help but imagine that if grades did work just like currency, te maximum grade would have been increased to 135 by now.
posted by Greg J. Hipius | 8:02 AM
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