When I was a young professor, one of my favorite students came to every class, attended my office hours to talk to me, and was quite outspoken about his goals for my classes (he took more than one from me). He just wanted what in my day was a ‘gentleman’s C’. He came to every class and read the material once, but he didn’t want to work harder to get better grades. He got Cs in both of my classes, and I didn’t have to worry that he would complain that he deserved better. Today that isn’t the case. As Liberty Vitert pointed out a few years ago, many students and even their parents feel that just signing up for the class deserves an A. Things have gotten so bad at elite universities, that Harvard has put a limit to the number of As faculty can hand out. This is because grade inflation is harmful to everyone.
Grades Are Feedback
Grades serve an educational purpose as feedback. An ‘A’ tells you that you have mastered the material in the class. A ‘C’ says that you have barely squeaked by, learning just enough to pass. An ‘F’ means you didn’t learn what you needed to learn and have to repeat the class. Feedback is necessary for learning to occur. We might think we have mastered class material, but when we find that we did poorly on a test, we have learned that we did not and need to revisit what we got wrong. Getting a good grade tells us that our study approach is effective and to keep doing what we have been doing.
Grades Are Motivating
Feedback also serves a motivating role. Good grades increase our sense of competence and are a reward for effort. Such rewards encourage us to continue to work hard. A poor grade can motivate us to do better, especially if that grade stands in the way of graduation or other goals. Poor grades in required subjects can tell students that they are not acquiring the skills they will need in their careers. For those who are thinking about graduate school, especially hard-to-get-into doctoral programs, good grades are a must-have.
Grade Inflation is Harmful to Everyone
Grade inflation harms students, institutions, and society. For students, when grades are inflated, they lose both their feedback and motivation functions. If almost everyone gets an A regardless of performance, there is no way for students to know how well they have mastered the material. They do not know if their study approach is effective, so they have not learned how to learn. They don’t know if there are gaps in their knowledge that they need to fill. For those who make minimal effort, the good grades reinforce that behavior.
For institutions grade inflation undermines their reputation. Some of the most elite universities in the U.S. have damaged their brands leading some employers to be skeptical of hiring their graduates. Harvard has responded with policies to limit A grades in an effort to reclaim their status as one of the best places to be educated.
For society grade inflation makes it difficult for employers to know that when they hire a college graduate, that individual comes with a valuable skill set. A common employer complaint is that new graduates are not ready for the workforce, and grade inflation is one factor that contributes to that concern. The same problem occurs for K-12 grade inflation, where some students who get As in math cannot do even basic arithmetic when they get to college.
The problem with low standards is that they produce a downward spiral. As less is required for an A-grade, students adjust their efforts downward and learn less. Over time what it takes for most to earn good grades becomes less and less. Rather than challenging students with high expectations that they can aspire to reach, we shortchange them by letting them just get by. Grade inflation is harmful to everyone especially the students we serve.
Image from Openverse.
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