Summary Of Grade Inflation By Brent Staples

Brent Staples presents an essay that explains the current "grade inflation" that is taking place in colleges and universities currently. According to Staples, the problem resides in the competition that goes on between all colleges nowadays, and to keep students from attending classes that aren't as interesting as others, such as humanities. The author uses an economic principle as a metaphor to explain what the problem consists of. He begins by stating that "shabby products" can compete with the "superior" ones, if their price and quality appear to be better and more accessible. This goes down to a point, where inflation is generated and those "superior products" are not "superior" any more, they lose their superiority. With an apprehensive tone, the author expresses his concern about the future if this continues to happen. This is what eventually will happen in schools, well they're "showering" students with A's and great grades only to keep up in statistics or preventing the loss of jobs, since many classes would be greatly avoided.

The author gives the reader a lot of facts to support his argument about "grade inflation." However, how can we define this term?

I believe that this term refers to good grades losing their real value. Students are getting degrees with extremely good grades. Some years ago, this didn't happen. Getting an A for any class was so complicated that only cum laude students were worth getting those grades, which gave them a very high and esteemed value. The problem is, as Staples says it, "that students and parents are demanding –and getting- what they think of their money's worth." With this said, the possible solutions to these problem cease to exist more and more, well an average graduate degree can go from fifty, all the way to 200

grand.

After giving us many arguments on why colleges "shower their students with A's," and trying to give himself credibility through the stimulation of our ethos, the author proposes some solutions to the problem, stating however that despite the proposal, it'll be extremely hard to return that lost values to good grades. Staples says that "One way to stanch inflation is to change the way the grade point average is calculated," meaning that the hard and more demanding classes would have more "weight" in the GPA rather, than all the classes having the same "weight." He follows this proposal with a failed attempt to apply this system at Duke University, where, the professor who presented the idea was attacked by both the students and the faculty of classes who need that grade "weight" in order for their A's to be appreciated, therefore attracting students in need of A's to the classes.

However, the whole problem is not only up to colleges competing, and students making their expensive transcripts look good. There are also people, whose jobs depend on the decreasing value of these good grades. The author tries to get into our pathos and make us feel sorry for those temporary teachers who have no "job security" guarantees, other than well qualified student evaluations. So, being afraid of losing their jobs to poor evaluations, these teachers also "shower students with A's." Unfortunately, around half the teaching jobs in the college system in America are temporary. With this mentioned the author implies that the "grade inflation" is condemned to stay, and will continue to such a point where "diplomas will become weaker and more ornamental as years go by." The end of this article suggests that even though, solutions are presented, in fact good solutions, competition and the value of the student's money are more valuable than the diplomas themselves. Here, the apprehensive tone is present once more.