The prolonged phenomenon of grade inflation has caused much debate for a number of decades. Following the recent article, from The Guardian, I believe the issue of grade inflation is yet to be resolved. Anything that affects the quality of education should not go unnoticed, and grade inflation is one of them. Pupils have been receiving higher grades than they should, clearly affecting the way the government, teachers and students are portrayed. Let us start by considering this: Awarding students higher grades helps to develop more self-esteem and greater feelings of pride if they have something to work for. Whereas if they are continuously receiving low grades this could lead to pupils thinking they’re not ‘good enough’ or ‘smart enough.’ …show more content…
This essentially means that in order to get even a B, at least five or six more marks will be required of them, and in this case, more marks means more work. Bill Watkin, operational director of the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, said: "It would appear that changes to grade boundaries have resulted in a discrepancy between predicted results and actual results in a number of schools....” To some students, predicted grades are just what they need to sit back and “work” effortlessly to get a common C/D. Watkin also quoted, “What I 've been told is that the grade boundary change has resulted in a high number of children just below the boundary...” With the boundary being the “C”, this means that a large number of students have been predicted the B/C grade and received a D or below, which in reality will not help them get where it is they want to be. Many teachers and head teachers that are in a situation where the vast majority of the cohort are bundled around the C/D borderline, generally means that at least more than 50% of their final grades will be a C or below. Statistics like this can easily damage not only the reputation of students and teachers but also the school. Richard Thomas, executive director of the Association of Secondary Head teachers in Essex, said: "I started getting concerns from schools about English results, not just in schools in challenging areas, but in some outstanding schools and schools with more comprehensive
In the article, “From Degrading to De-Grading”, by Alfie Kohn he discusses the harmful effects grades have on students. Kohn argues that there are better ways to assess students’ progress other than letter or numerical grades. Grades are a great concept but they tend to be more hurtful than helpful. Cheating can become a problem, students won’t take challenges, and they develop unhealthy competition between one another. There have been many studies conducted over the years that support Kohn’s argument.
David Gillborn and Deborah Youdell’s study (2001) adopts a different approach and instead shows how the school uses the belief of the teachers to decide which pupils have the ability to achieve the 5 A*- c grades at GCSE’s. Working class and black pupils are perceived to lack the required ability therefore ending up being entered in lower tier GCSE’s. This denies them the knowledge and opportunity to gain good grades as even if they get 100% of the test right they will still only achieve a C in lower tier exams.
In “How Grading Reform Changed Our School” by Jeffrey A. Erickson, the Assistant Principal of Minnetonka High School in Minnesota, Erickson assessed how and what things are taken into account when distributing grades. Erickson claimed that the accuracy and truthfulness of grades are misrepresented with many common components that seem to be used for general grading standards.
This sort of situation can be defined as ‘Grade Deflation’ which means that higher grades are harder or more difficult to receive because a very small amount can be given out or to protect an institution. Grade deflation should be reduced or even eliminated because it can improve education and positively affect a student’s future. Elizabeth Wissner-Gross tells us about grade deflation and why and how it should be terminated in her article “Invitation to a Dialogue: Stop deflating Grades” published on the New York Times. The Author argues against high schools and colleges that are manipulating numbers in order to protect their institutions from being accused of grade inflation. Some administrators believe that too many A’s can, in some ways, affect their institution’s image negatively. The author, while
Pragmaticism, indeed, will dictate that schools, assessments, and organizations long-established will not be altered for light and short-lived causes. Hence, a gradual shift in culture and method must occur which reforms the quantitative nature of grading systems. However, let the negative effects of the current grading system be known in a direct way:
School is slave labor. Rather than enjoying or learning from their classes, students are forced to do useless work that will often be forgotten immediately. Grades are meant to show much a student understands a class, but instead are used as a scale of how well a student can regurgitate answers onto a test. Students only work for good grades because of the threat of being punished for failure, and the promise of reward for passing. The punishments in this case are detention or trouble from teachers, and the rewards are making the honor roll or getting bragging rights. The real reward for learning should be having new knowledge, but this is not taken into consideration. Jerry Farber, a professor at U.S.D, made the strong claim that grades are useless and harmful in his essay, “A Young Person’s Guide to the Grading System.” I wholeheartedly agree with Farber’s objection to our current grading system.
Harvey C. Mansfield, professor of government at Harvard University, begins his published piece, “Grade Inflation: It’s Time to Face the Facts,” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, explaining his two grade system he’s implemented at Harvard University. Mansfield’s grading system operates by giving one fourth of his students As and the other fourth A-s; the second part of his system is a private grade granted by either him or the course assistants. The private grades expose the students’ flaws and weaknesses; revealing their true merits. The problem he identifies is that A’s are given freely to students with insufficient intention; students no longer struggle to earn excellent marks. He assumes his readers are concerned about grade inflation and hopes college professors and administrators might implement his ideas. His primary claim is one policy, and his purpose is to convince his readers to revolutionize the grading model today and abate the grade inflation statistics.
Schools and college professors, who give you a good grade for excellent productivity on assignments, allow students to perform poorly, but still benefit relative to a person with an A. Two articles that observe grade inflation, find the rising problems of grade inflation, and finding solutions for grade inflation. Stuart Rojstaczer, an author from Grade Inflation Gone Wild, is a professor of geophysics at Duke university, and created gradeinflation.com in regards for his concern about grade inflation. On the other hand, Phil Primack is a journalist and teacher at Tufts University, and published in the “Boston Globe” Doesn’t Anybody Get a C Anymore? While college students, who work with little effort and still attain easy A’s by working poorly on assignments and exams, Primack and Rojstaczer, develop a firm connection towards grade inflation and the solution that can regain control over real education.
When researching into the topic of grade inflation one begins to see a multitude of problems arise that have been previously ignored and have been left to continue wreaking havoc on the educational system. Mark Oppenheimer shares a similar points of view in his article where he discussed his opinion, that grade inflation is one of the much lesser issues and that we need to be focusing on other things.(other things, just quote his article). His ideas are countered by the ideas of people such as Rojstaczer who argue that grade inflation is becoming an out of control issue that needs to be fixed (add in quotes from the book and article)
It's June, and another graduating class is hoping, among other things, to achieve high grades. Of course, "high" is a subjective target. Originally a "C" meant average; today however, the expectations and pressures to give and receive "A's" and "B's" takes its toll on teachers and students alike. This nullifies the value of the traditional grading scale and creates a host of entirely new problems. The widespread occurrence of grade inflation seriously affects the credibility of secondary and post-secondary education in America.
In “The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation,” Alfie Kohn sets out to determine if grade inflation is indeed fact or fiction. The opening quotes provided by two professors at Harvard University separated by over century has most definitely peaked my interest. It had me questioning whether or not these professors are holding our education system to a “Harvard” standard or is their actually truth to their statements; that feigned students are indeed submitting “sham work” (Bergmann, 260). Kohn goes onto indicate that: “To say that grades are not merely rising but inflated—and that they are consequently ‘less accurate’ now, as the American Academy’s report puts it-is to postulate the existence of an objectively correct evaluation of what a student (or essay) deserves” (Bergmann, 263). To theorize grade-inflation is to question the judgment and teaching of all the previous and future educators of America. It also raises the question of why has not there any concert data to support this claim. Why is our educational system delaying this investigation since this concern has been around for years? Especially, now that grade inflation is starting to gain more momentum.
Each year, the existence of grade inflation is gradually affecting the quality of education nationwide. Both secondary and primary levels of education are objected to this grading system in which higher marks are issued where it may not necessarily be fitting. Grade inflation not only affects students but impacts instructors, students’ parents, and the educational system as a whole, which creates a chain reaction effect on all. After observing two hundred colleges and universities, a study shows that greater than forty percent of grades distributed were of an A- marking or higher (Newlon 2). The idea of faultily increasing students’ markings proves to only hurt their futures in the long run, setting them up for imminent failure in the real world where a grade cushion does not exist.
Forcing students to work towards a letter grade is proven to cause stress. Denise Clark Pope, in the school of Education, followed high
How does grades help students? Grades help motivate students provides direct feedback about academic performance to the students, and standardize scoring across different institutions. Grades help to motivate some students, due to creating an end goal, target for the students to strive for. The target would be the A or A+ grade, the reward for ideally being able to completely understand and apply the knowledge gained in class. While on the flipside, students generally avoid an F. F being the punishment for not knowing what is going on in the class. It is also a motivator to push people to get a higher score, and avoid the punishment of an F. Grades are also provide students with feedback about their academic performance. For instance when a student gets a low grade, D or F, it indicates to the student that he or she is failing, or starting to fail the course. Or
At the highest threshold (less than 5 GCSEs at grade C or above): 25% of pupils did not achieve the higher threshold of 5+ GCSEs at grade C or