<p>Right. They were trying to capture the actual academic accomplishments of the student. In other words, they thought that a student with a 3.4 at Williams had shown roughly the same level of talent and achievement as a student with a 3.8 at CS Chico. So Boalt would award both students a GPA of 3.6 for purposes of admission to Boalt. </p>
<p>If Boalt was right about this, then it could be true even if 3.4 was the 50th percentile at Williams and 3.8 was the 99th percentile at Chico (which isn’t far from the truth). In other words, Boalt thought Chico was setting the bar low, AND that most Chico students weren’t reaching the low bar.</p>
<p>What is actually causing grade inflation, whether it’s a problem, what we should do to change it, etc. are all hotly debated questions. You’re going to find conflicting answers from different sources.</p>