Grade Inflation is a concern amongst many schools from high schools to
colleges. The average GPA in schools can be increased or curved if most students are
under the average limit. The common cause of grade inflation is when grade patterns
change so that the overwhelming majority of students in a class, college, or university
receive higher grades for the same quantity and quality of work done by students in the
past. Grade Inflation should not be taken into teachers recommendations.
Grade Inflation helps with a student’s GPA by at least .33 points. There is
a fear that it can damage student self-concepts, teachers whom tried to protect students
end up with results of hurting their self-esteem. Studies show an increase
…show more content…
They may even have a different idea of a high
achievement for an A or B. Some teachers even think that students will just do the “bare
minimum” of work to get a passing grade. It can even be predictable about student
grades based on if they try or bother to do any work. However, Grade inflation can make
a student come apart two consequences. They will either take the grade they are given
and just keep slacking off or think of it a way as to try harder and do better to increase
their grade in the future.
Grade inflation has developed because stringent grading and tougher
grading cannot seriously be considered a solution. Grading tends to take its toll early in
life. It forecloses on the hopes and aspirations of many students and causes them to
decreases academic ranks, lower social status, and reduced employment possibilities
before their potential has a chance to be proven. With this disposition children don't
believe their academic efforts have any solution. Also, once grades are put into their
record, students tend to be conditioned to receive them. With this disposition children
don't believe their academic efforts have any payoff. Also, once grades
In her article, “The Case Against GRADES”, Alfie Kohn discusses the grading system and its faults. She opens her argument with information from an older psychological study that proves the negative impact of the current grading system, and she reinforces this with the proof that “no” research has contradicted this statement. Also, she gives many key reasons including: “Motivation”, “Achievement”, “Quantification”, and “Curriculum”. Kohn supports these topics with other reasearch for why the system is failing the students. She asserts that, “… the absence of grading is a necessary condition for promoting deep thinking and a desire to engage in it.” As support, she offers other solutions and then debunks them by proving that they would not solve
“Making the Grade” by Kurt Wiesenfeld Newsweek magazine, June 27 1996 brings to light an issue that has been glazed over by society for some time, grade inflation. It’s highly disturbing that “we lament that schoolchildren get “kicked upstairs” until they graduate from high school despite being illiterate and mathematically inept, but we seem unconcerned with college graduates whose less blatant deficiencies are far more harmful, if their accreditation exceeds their qualifications”. The issue of grade inflation is not simply an issue of students feeling entitled to higher grades than they have earned, it is a problem that directly impacts our society in a multitude of negative ways. Perhaps the “gold star” mentality started out with the good intentions of creating children with positive self-esteem, however, a direct result is lazy adults with a sense of entitlement for no reason, who lack qualifications to adequately and safely perform their jobs.
Worrying too much about grades can cause students serious problems like not really understanding the work, make them not feel smart enough and lose interest in school and can cause anxiety and other health issues. In the article Mr. Bains said “ Indeed, there are several problems with strategic learners” (Project Information Literacy October 10, 2012 page1/4). One of the problems is students don 't really understand what they are learning if once they reach that high grade they want they will just stop. I am very guilty of only performing for the grade because I did it all throughout high school. I was taught that getting an A was the highest grade you can get so once I reached that A I...
Teachers themselves are often left to make the best of what little they have to work with. A narrow curriculum with little for scholars to decide themselves leaves them feeling like completing cookie-cutter worksheets is boring and pointless. Over time, students begin to hold educators with contempt and become disgusted by school and the tedious, rote labor that comes with it. With no enthusiasm, defeated students scores plummet and the faculty in turn can develop a bad attitude about students. The worst part is this combination produces a negative loop that often only spirals further downward.
In other words, two teachers may give the same assignment two completely different grades based on their own grading style. This puts an incredible amount of stress on a student because they need to complete assignments that will satisfy their current teacher, whose expectations and grading style could be very similar or very different from the student’s previous teacher. Alfie Kohn believes that the influence grades have on a student’s life doesn’t help this situation, and may even make it worse by providing students with a false sense of security about their knowledge. In her article “From Degrading to De-grading”, she states that scores on tests can be largely based on how the test was written and what skills were tested (Kohn 240). Therefore, it is up to teachers to identify what topics students must master in order to be proficient and score well on standardized tests. But when the class is not structured with a consideration for the material used on such tests, students enter the test blind to the skills that they will be expected to know and use. Anyone can memorize a list of facts off a study guide and score well on a multiple choice test the next day, but skills such as analyzing literature and interpreting a handful of graphs containing data from a scientific experiment are skills that require time and hours of instruction to master.
Being a professor himself, Rojstaczer admits that he is also guilty of grade inflation. Rojstaczer describes, “If I sprinkle my classroom with the C’s some students deserve, my class will suffer from declining enrollment in future years. Low enrollment is taken as a sign of poor-quality instruction.” The author describes the challenge that he has as a professor to students and dealing with the grade inflation. According to Rojstaczer, Grade inflation is everywhere and most everyone has experienced or had done it themselves. Even though Rojstaczer is guilty of committing grade inflation, he correspondingly realizes the problems that the system and the students will have in the
In today’s society we feel the need to be graded in order to learn. The topic of the grading system has sparked three essays, by three different authors, about the pros and cons of the grading system. First, Jerry Farber, professor at University of California at San Diego, wrote A Young Person’s Guide to the Grading System (333). Next is Steven Vogel, professor at Denison University, who wrote Grades and Money (337). The last two authors in this compilation are Stephen Goode and Timothy W. Maier. They both are journalists for Insight on the News. While each of these authors have their own point of view on the grading system, all three essays talk about how being graded affects learning.
Will inflating grades now cause diplomas to become null and void? Brent Staples, a member of the New York Times editorial board and frequent writer to the newspaper, who also holds a PhD in psychology writes the article “Why colleges shower their students with A’s”. This article appears in the New York Times in 1998. Staples writes about ongoing concerns of grade inflation and its effect to devalue future diplomas. Appealing to his audience using a logical approach Staples includes a fallacy in his persuasive article.
This article discusses ineffective grading, the high stakes of grading, and the steps in could take to change those practices. There were three areas that were discussed about ineffective grading that involved the concept of giving zeros, averaging all scores throughout the semester, and using the semester kill project, paper, test, or lab. All of these things do not prove what students have learned but rather show what they learned right now or are trying to make one thing more important than everything else. With the giving of zeros in a gradebook you are just validating that the student does need the knowledge. The high stakes of grading were about the cost of failure and the positive impact that grading change can have on a school system. Finally, the author outlines a 4 steps that can lead to better grading practices which are creating a sense of urgency, identifying teacher leaders who are improving grading policies, getting the facts, and reassuring stakeholders that certain
Students understand the consequences of low grade averages, so they constantly evaluate grades by keeping up with their averages. Low grades cause academic probation. During the probationary period students are encouraged to focus on applying themselves to bring grade averages up to standards. While focusing on averages, students are able to change their study habits or learning styles for instance; some students learn by hands-on-training and others by reading comprehension. The grade scale can determine if a student needs further instructions or tutoring. One the other hand, students study habits play an important role in their grades. If a student makes the wrong decisions about studying and preparing for class their grades will suffer drastically. Study habits need to be evaluated and processed for tips to succeed.
The Consequences of Grade Inflation When students arrive at university, professors expect them to understand the material to an exceptional standard. The problem is that grade inflation is occurring more regularly in secondary schools and universities across the country and when these students’ marks are sent to universities or colleges, the student may be given multiple scholarships for something that he/she should not have earned. Grade inflation is conceived between both students and teachers, meaning that the students are given higher grades when they have inadequate learning, reading, and verbal skills, while the teachers do not have to grade as many papers as they should in the real curriculum. There have been multiple examinations that have confirmed that grade inflation is very real and still occurs today. Students seem to think that they do not need to put forth much effort in school to do well, and grade inflation encourages this thought.
One of the issues, which Boyer points out , is that teachers and students have different expectations from college education. She says that the teachers are mainly concerned about students’ comprehension of the material, their attendance and attention while students’ hopes are to get good grades and to be well prepared for exams. It seems that the system of grading pushes students to not care too much about what is being taught from an understanding perspective, but only promotes more concern about grades instead. Some students don't really pay attention unless the instructor mentions an exam or something that will be graded. Furthermore, be...
Giving students a grade that they have not earned hinders the youth’s future educational success. A number of schools are no longer giving a grade of zero on assignments, tests, and exams completed by students. While other school districts continue to give students the grade that is adequate for the work they have done or have not completed. Giving students the grade that equals their work is designed to show students where they need to improve. Many school boards want to stop giving out zeros for work that hasn’t been turned in and give a grade that rages around the “D” area keeping children from falling behind in their classes. By allowing student to pass through the school system the educational board is raising their graduation and success
I had a 4.01 GPA entering my senior year of high school. I was proud of this and determined to keep, if not raise, it. AP classes in our school were weighted on the GPA scale; an A was worth 5 instead of 4. With hard work, I could apply this system to my benefit. That is, until Maureen Grady, my AP Calculus teacher, obstructed my goal of graduating with a perfect GPA.
By nature, most students are brought up in an academic environment motivated to get A’s and B’s on their report cards. Those grades sometimes don’t thoroughly report how much a student has learned or gained knowledge in each topic. Some instructors throw in factors totally unrelated to learning, when the main objective of academic institutions is to learn. In order to clearly demonstrate how much a student has learned in the classroom, schools should change their current grading system and teach students how to learn.