This may sound old-fashioned, but I still like the idea that education is about learning: facts, skills, concepts, research, culture, analysis, motivation. It should enrich our lives and make us better citizens and independent thinkers.
But over the past decade and a half, the goal of learning has given way to learning proxies: grades and degrees. The negative effect has been inflation in both. They always go up; reading is useless.
I've written about degree inflation before – employers requiring a bachelor's degree or higher for a job you don't really need. Fortunately, hiring managers have begun to learn that, and the demand for qualifications has been decreasing in many fields.
But the inflation rate continues. A 2022 Times analysis showed that grades in the Los Angeles Unified School District had been rising while scores on standardized tests were falling — and that the two were nowhere near each other.
Not discriminating against LA schools or students: Grade inflation is ubiquitous and especially prevalent in affluent neighborhoods. To avoid discouraging students, some school districts eliminated D and F grades. Grade point averages have continued to rise even though scores on standardized national tests such as the SAT and the National Assessment of Educational Progress have not.
It's not that I think standardized tests are the last word in measuring beauty. They have their weaknesses. But when the gap between grades and test scores is so wide and consistent, parents and the public should not be fooled.
It's not just the students who didn't do well. A report by the National Center for Education Statistics found that while high school students were taking more credits and more rigorous courses and getting higher grades in math, their actual reading proficiency declined. In a 2023 survey, teachers say nearly half of students are earning higher grades than they are being paid, and 8 out of 10 teachers agree. It's hard to blame them: A third or more of students and parents abuse them if they don't. .
Missed grades hurt in many ways. They screw up the college admissions process, for one thing. While colleges used to view high school grade point averages as the best predictor of higher education success, their predictive value has declined. While many schools have stopped considering the SAT and ACT as part of admissions, select schools are bringing them back. They need steps they can trust to have a goal.
Some students, armed with good grades, march into college only to find themselves in remedial classes because they haven't studied enough to take college-level courses. For years, employers have complained that high school and even college graduates lack the basic skills needed for the job. College professors complain that the students who come to them do not have the skills to read books.
As reformers and the US Department of Education pressure colleges to improve graduation rates, it should come as no surprise that grade inflation has followed students into high school. Some professors hesitate to assign grades accurately because of student evaluations, which tend to be worse for students with strong grades. Keep in mind that about 70 percent of college professors are adjunct professors with little job security.
Many Ivy League students have learned to cherry-pick professors who put it simply. However, a Brown University study found that students who took professional courses with higher grade levels learned more.
We have to ask ourselves as a society: Do we want college to be a place of intellectual growth or a practical job of scoffing grades?
There is a potential benefit to rising college tuition rates: Lowered standards are associated with more students graduating. But I am less interested in what certificate they have than what they have studied. It's the same for employers: One in six say they hesitate to hire college graduates because they tend to be unprepared and poor at communicating.
No wonder 65% of Americans think they are smarter than average. Parents are tricked into thinking their straight-A students are academic stars and are surprised when they are rejected by selective universities. They don't realize that these days, A is for Average.
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