Health & Fitness
Stop Grade Inflation in our High Schools
Grade Inflation is hurting our kids. And the fact that there's a financial incentive attached to higher grades in the district wreaks of questionable motive.
Grade Inflation is hurting our kids. Call me old-fashioned, but my wish is that we can get back to some basics… like rewarding performance and not boosting grades beyond legitimate achievement. What a concept, eh?
The following notice was recently sent to parents and students in our local school district:
“Once again this year, the math, English, science, and social science departments will offer opportunities for grade incentives tied to performance on the STAR California Standards Tests (CST) which will be given to all 9th, 10th and 11th grade students.”
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It then states that students who improve from “below proficient” to “proficient” levels on the test will get a retroactive grade boost of 3%, and for “advanced” level, a boost of 5%. The student then asks their teacher to adjust their actual grade accordingly.
Grade Incentives? Or Grade Inflation…
While the public school system may call this “grade incentives”, I call it grade inflation. And the fact that there’s a financial incentive attached to higher grades in the district wreaks of questionable motive. The “system” continues to inflate students’ level of achievement (or lack thereof?). The worst part of all this is that it often results in extreme disappointment when students apply to over-the-top reach colleges only to be denied by them all.
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As a culture we seem to be on a track of rewarding everyone in some type of noble attempt to be “fair”. The reality, however, is that this is harmful and does not prepare our children for the real world.
How Many Valedictorians?
As another example… it used to be there was a total of… let me think back now… oh yes, ONE valedictorian per high school class. Last year at one of our local high schools, there were not 1 or 2, not 10 or 20 or even 50, but nearly 100 “valedictorians”, about 15% of the entire graduating class! This results in a predictable trend: we see an increasing number of students applying to colleges to which they have NO chance of admission, and the despair that results is heart-breaking.
Whatever the measuring stick being used to receive the coveted “state funding” should have absolutely no effect on students grades. Maybe we just need to get back to basics. The “Trophy for Everyone” approach isn’t working. There’s dignity and honor in earning good grades as opposed to manipulating them for what, at the very least, has the appearance of questionable motive.
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