Causes and Implications of Grade Inflation in America's Education System (Research Paper Sample)

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Causes and Implications of Grade Inflation in America’s Education System
Introduction
Grading of student achievement in learning institutions provides the means through which teachers can determine whether the institution is meeting the curriculum goals. This is done through the ranking of learners’ test scores as a way of describing their level of competence. Teachers employ measurement tools such as standardized tests, class assignments, and continuous assessment tests to assess the level of learners’ mastery of the syllabus content. However, the inflation of grades by awarding students more A’s and B’s create an inaccurate picture of learners’ actual competencies. This conclusion stems from the observation that American students, who score high grades in national and school-based exams, perform poorly when they compete in international tests with learners from other developed countries. Thus, the tendency of inflating grades in schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions of higher learning not only encourages the production of incompetent minds who cannot perform in the job market and the general economy as expected, but also threatens to destroy the credibility of America’s entire education system. This is because the grades awarded do not reflect the actual knowledge and skills competence of the learners. This situation further suggests that the quality of education is being compromised, and that the education system is not meeting its responsibility of producing a knowledgeable and skilled labor force to drive the country’s technological and economic growth. This research paper examines the cause and implications of grade inflation in the American education system. The author argues that the poor performance by American learners in international tests despite scoring high grades in national exams indicates that there is a problem with the grading system used in America’s learning institutions. Accordingly, it is imperative to re-evaluate the grading approach used in America’s education system in awarding learners’ achievements, with the aim of ensuring that the grades reflect international standards and the true competence levels of learners, and avoid compromising on the quality of education.
Performance of American Students in International Test Scores
The first critical test for America’s grading system and education standards is the performance of American students in international test scores. Results from a number of these tests show American students lagging behind their Asian and European counterparts, especially in math and sciences (Noguch 2013). This is despite their high performance in tests administered in their schools and states. In this consideration, the failure of American students to replicate their high performance in national and school-based exams in international tests points to three possible problematic areas in the U.S. grading system. One, the administered tests do not assess learners in all realms of knowledge. Two, teachers reward learners with higher grades than they deserve. And finally, the letter grading system may not be an accurate measure of learners’ knowledge and skills competence. Similarly, a report by the Barron’s Educational Series Inc., a company that publishes material for helping students prepare for college-entrance exams, indicates that most colleges are flexible in the grading of applicants’ test scores (Barron’s Educational Series 1). The willingness by some of the colleges to be lenient to applicants is the first sign of the flexible grading system that will be applied when they finish college, hence the high number of A and B grades that do not necessarily reflect the college graduates’ true competencies.
The idea that the standardized tests used in American schools may not be comprehensive enough is supported by a research by Anne White in the International Journal of Management Education, in which she argues that instructors in American institutions teach with learners’ performance in exams in mind. Higher learning institutions and the job market place a high value on a learner’s grade, which determines selection into top universities, qualification for scholarships, and securing of high-paying jobs. Accordingly, instructors are sometimes tempted to adopt teaching, testing, and grading strategies designed to boost learners’ opportunities for success in furthering their education and in the job market. Moreover, Witte observes that evaluators are sometimes persuaded to be “soft” on students from minority groups when assigning grades, a trend that reflects “the last century’s intense concern with affirmative action and academic fairness” (Witte 51). This trend creates a problem when trying to grade students’ achievement in an international context, or interpreting the grades across different educational cultures. In the international context, the author noted that there were disparities in terms of “grades used to reward the very best students and those that establish the pass/fail mark” (Witte 51). The relevant question to address in this regard, therefore, is whether the grading system reflects international standards in terms of the points earned and the grade assigned. Reference to international standards will help determine whether America’s grading system is inflated or not.
Grading in High School
The inflation of grades in the U.S. is evident from the high marks that students are required to score to earn a certain grade. For instance, in high school grading, a grade of B requires a student to score 80 points and above. A score of below 60% in the U.S. is considered a fail, for which a student is assigned the letter F. In other countries like the Republic of Ireland and the UK, lesser marks are needed to score a B grade. This suggests that marks in the U.S. are inflated. For example, if a score of 40% gets a student a pass in the UK, while the same marks is a fail in the U.S., it means that a person who scores 40% in the UK has equal competence to a student who scores 60% in the U.S., which is the passing score. High school grading in the U.S. is summarized in the table below.
Table 1: High School Grading in America
Percentage  Letter GradeCommon Meaning
90-100% AExcellent work, above standards 80-89% BMeets standards, satisfactory 70-79% CPartially proficient 60-69% DUnsatisfactory Below 60% FFailure
On the surface, this ranking system appears to place emphasis on high standards considering that students must score high marks to earn a passing grade. In normal circumstances, for example, a score of 50 percent is average, and therefore not a fail because the student was able to get half of the questions right. In this light, a score of 55% should be a pass because it is above average. However, getting slightly more than half the questions correct or scoring just above average is not enough in America’s education system. Even more, a score of above 60% but less than 70% is considered unsatisfactory, while a score of less than 80% (70-79%) merely meets the standards. Perhaps looking at it from a different perspective will better illustrate the high standards implied by America’s letter grading system. In America, a student has a 20 percent margin error to earn a satisfactory grade (starting at a score of 80% and above). Getting more than 30 percent of the questions wrong (69%) gets an unsatisfactory grade of D. A casual consideration of these statistics suggests that the American education is very competitive. It is when they are analyzed in reference to the passing mark and the number of students who make it, however, that the idea of inflation surfaces. A score of 80 percent, or in other words, the expectation for a student to get only 20 percent of the questions incorrect to get a satisfactory grade, is demanding a lot from the learner. In the context of the American education system, 80-89 % is the average mark, the range where majority of the learners should score. At the same time, it is unrealistic to expect a majority of learners to score in this range, of course, unless the grading system is flexible to allow that kind of distribution. In other words, if a student’s work is merely satisfactory, the teacher awards 80%, which is equivalent to a B. In Germany, the same student’s work will receive between 50 and 65% (C-C+), the score-range that is considered to meet the requirements. Given that ranking of students in this case is criterion-referenced (against a standard) rather than norm-referenced (compared against other students’ performance), it is expected that scoring 50 percent in Germany or UK is harder than scoring the same points in the U.S. It is not surprising, therefore, that students who may score above 80% in American assessment tests perform poorly when they compete in international test scores where the grading is strict. This suggests that the poor performance of American students in international tests is a reflection of an exaggerated grading system in the American education system. This is because a student who scores 80 percent- which means mastering 80 percent of the syllabus content assuming the assessment covers all areas- is expected to replicate the same performance in international tests.
Grading in Higher Education
The most visible aspect of the grading system in American institutions is the high marks required to earn a passing grade (over 60% for a B), compared to 45% in the other countries that rank students’ performance in percentage (Ireland and the UK). In a study of the grading strategies used in American ins...