The GradeInflation.com site will be adding the individual schools data, over the next few days.
Ugh.
^ Agreed. Might as well move away from grades as a measure of student success in that case.
^That’s basically what they’re going to do at our high school starting in two years. “Proficiency-based,” meaning portfolios. I don’t know WHAT they’re going to do for issuing grades for colleges to see. It’s a disaster. I’m glad my youngest is graduating this year. 
@MaineLonghorn ugh, they have threatened that at our HS, but not yet. I assume the high stakes tests become even “higher” stakes, because there is no way to quickly judge the kids otherwise. And what about the colleges that give merit scholarships based on HS GPA? I have a D24 in addition to my current HSers, so still worry about this.
Crazy question, but is it possible that students are better today? I know I would have had better grades if I had had the internet. ??
My homeschoolers would often look at videos and other media to understand a concept that in prior years would have been taught solely from a book or teacher.
I also think the economy puts downward pressure on parents, kids, and schools to produce higher grades in an attempt to stay competitive in the market place.
@Booajo, it’s the state of Maine that’s mandating schools use a proficiency-based system. But they haven’t provided any details, so each district in the state will be different! Some schools will handle it better than others. Our school is one of the top in the state, and they’e working very hard on the issue. I can’t imagine what little schools in the middle of nowhere will do. Maybe it will take awhile for your school to follow through. I hope so!
^ I’m glad someone else brought up that point. Can you imagine going back thirty years ago and being the only person in your dorm that owned a word processor?
@circuitrider - so true. I remember spending hours in the computer lab in college, cranking out papers. Inevitably something would go wrong (usually when I took it down to the wire).
I always smile when I read of Wellesley students complaining about grade “deflation.” It’s not deflation, it’s just not inflation. And when the average grade is a B-, there’s still a bit of inflation going on.
I’m concerned when I see that there is still a significant gap between humanities and engineering majors. As many states have adopted lottery scholarships with minimum GPA requirements-- I wonder if this isn’t driving some STEM oriented kids to switch to humanities in order to maintain their source of funding. I find it really interesting that to maintain some need based funding a GPA of 2.0 is required; but to maintain merit funding a much higher GPA is required. Does this then impact students choice of courses and majors?
I tend to agree with SouthFloridaMom9 on this one a bit. How many people here on CC have commented that their kids work harder and know more in HS than they ever did? I know my children and their friends work harder, care more, and learn more than anyone I knew. The amount of homework that they have is staggering in volume as well as content. My husband just remarked last night as he was proofreading my daughter’s research paper that it required more and was better written than any paper he wrote in college. (And of course - -i never remember a time when either of my parents proofread a paper - it is an expectation now) As a parent, education and schooling have been more important in our home than when I was growing up.
As more people see the value of a good education and college is the expectation for more and more people, the schools have responded and there is a greater emphasis on learning and performance. My children and the those around them are continuously pushing themselves to do more and more. The cluster of 4.0+ students at our school are not there because of grade inflation but because of extreme hard work and dedication, as well as sky high expectations - from parents, from the kids themselves, from the community who keep telling our kids they are falling behind. The kids who struggle are provided accommodations, extra supports, study sessions, etc… to an extreme level that was not present a decade ago. Those that continue to struggle keep up have parents that find a reason or diagnosis for their struggles - and a plan to fix it. Failure is not an option.
I believe that the hyper competitive parenting (in a large part due to the internet), the increases in accountability in schools, the scary economy that these kids have lived through, and the access to resources have all created a cohort of super high achieving kids who are terrified of failure. Those that I have seen firsthand and those that I read about on CC have earned every single A (at the expense of free time, learning about the greater world, jobs, actual friendships -not snapchats, family time, etc…).
The flip side is these high achieving children are not always “high functioning” in the real world. Most problems don’t have a single answer and life does not come with a neat syllabus of these are the expectations - follow them for success. The kids that I see are lacking common sense and real world problem solving — but boy are they book smart.
Given the average grade inflation over the past 30 years, does that mean that I can add .35 points to my college GPA?
…building on @novicemom23kids and @SouthFloridaMom9: the students who get into highly selective schools have been super high achievers all the way through HS. They have the highest grades, typically a year or more’s worth of college coursework in APs, and substantial EC achievements- which generally requires a pretty high degree of self-discipline and motivation. And then people are surprised that these highly motivated, achievement-oriented strong students get good grades?
When I was coming through you could get into HYPS with mostly As and some Bs, an AP or two, a varsity sport or stu gov role. Now it’s straight As, lots of APs, a varsity sport + summer research + leadership roles + community service + etc. Why wouldn’t these kids do better in college as well?
The research behind this article - which can be found at www.gradeinflation.com - addresses the idea that students are smarter today. The author is skeptical.
In passing, he also deals with one of the common explanations for grade inflation.
It’s interesting to me that the grades are inflating but SAT scores were recentered to add points. I know my two Ds were more prepared for college than I was but that may be more to do with having a parent with a college education.
And it looks like the new data is up. http://www.gradeinflation.com/
Schools should adopt a two line report card. One a number would be the individual’s grade ie. 92 = A. The second line would be the average score for the class. So if 92 were the average grade for the class, grad schools and others would see that the person really scored what on a bell curve would be average or C.
You mean the data for individual schools? I’m still seeing nothing but the paper - with a note at the very bottom reading “Note on March 29th: I will add the data for the individual schools over the next few days.”
I sometimes wish my two had gone to a grade inflation college. But they are finely educated, no matter gpa.
I completely disagree with TatinG. I despise the idea of grading students relative to their class. If everyone earned an “A” (let’s say 90+) then everyone deserves an “A.” I reject the idea that people need to be graded on some kind of bell curve relative to other students.