The Consequences of Grade Inflation

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The Consequences of Grade Inflation

When students arrive at university, professors expect them to understand the material to an exceptional standard. The problem is that grade inflation is occurring more regularly in secondary schools and universities across the country and when these students’ marks are sent to universities or colleges, the student may be given multiple scholarships for something that he/she should not have earned. Grade inflation is conceived between both students and teachers, meaning that the students are given higher grades when they have inadequate learning, reading, and verbal skills, while the teachers do not have to grade as many papers as they should in the real curriculum. There have been multiple examinations that have confirmed that grade inflation is very real and still occurs today. Students seem to think that they do not need to put forth much effort in school to do well and grade inflation encourages this thought.

While some secondary schools do not disregard all standards of teaching, it is becoming more and more common for educators to converge with the increase of unearned grades of students. When such occurrences as this happens, the “disengagement compact, a term coined from George Kuh, [where there is an] agreement between teachers and students, ‘I’ll leave you alone if you leave me alone.’ ” (Allahar and Côté 2). This means that the teacher will not put in too much effort into teaching the students, so long as he/she does not have to mark as many papers or worksheets. This lack of effort from both groups is a main cause of grade inflation. Without anyone pushing students to the fullest extent of their comprehension in certain subjects, there will not be enough material for the educator...

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...esome marks to students who do not deserve them just to see if they will put more effort into their work is completely wrong. Instead of encouraging them, it does the opposite. It will give such students “false feedback about their ability,” making them believe that what they are doing is proper, that it is the standard set of skills that everyone has, and that they will succeed in almost anything with the same attitude. This misconception will act as a disservice to these students because they believe that they “do not [need to] improve their mastery of a subject.” And once he/she reaches a point where they have to make a decision in the career path that they have chosen which requires said mastery and skill, they will realize that they have been misconceived and that they are not the intellect that they once believed they were.

In the end, grade inflation is

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