How does it impact students and teachers?
In 1980, the average GPA of a student attending
University Prep was a 2.3. Over 30 years later, this number has risen to a 3.4 average for the Junior class of 2016.
This is clear evidence that grade inflation pervades at U Prep, just as it does most American schools and colleges.
Grade inflation is a flaw in grading that has slowly increased over a long period of time. There is no sole explanation for why grade inflation exists. Although it occurs at many schools for a variety of reasons, each to different degrees. Although there is no concrete cause of grade inflation, there are many theories as to why it has become a rising phenomenon specifically in the past few decades.
One of the reasons for boosted grades may be that teachers feel pressured to give higher grades.
Assistant Head of School and Director of Upper School Ken Jaffe cites the logistical problems with low grades as a reason for why teachers may inflate grades at the lower end.
“I think that teachers may give some grades on the lower end, that are a little higher to avoid unnecessary interference, of
having to defend the low grade,” Jaffe said.
When history teacher, Abigail Hundley gives out grades that are a C or lower, she finds that there has normally been backlash from either students, parents or other staff members.
“Parents think the reason they are sending their kids to this school is because their kid is above average [academically]. Of course if you average everyone that’s here, not everybody can be above average. I think we are just not good at accepting that,” Hundley said.
There are also patterns showing that certain departments at U Prep, consistently give higher grades.
“In the humanities, [like] English, history, [and] foreign language, [classes] seem to [have] more A’s and B’s,” Herrington said.
In classes such as english, and history. It has been noted that when teachers give a lower grade parents and students have more of a tendency to try to argue against the grade, because of this the teachers of english and history regularly give out higher grades.
Hundley believes that if the teachers of U Prep are going to give out grades, they should be the appropriate grade.
“In my heart I still think if we are going to grade we should grade for real. I hate grading I would love to throw it out but if we are going to grade it should say something. I think a C being 75 percent should be the average, at that point it means you have most of the material down.” History teacher Ms. Hundley.
Not to mention, teachers also want students to thrive and do well in their classes. Academic Dean Richard Kassissieh believes that one of the largest pieces why grade inflation is rising is also because teachers are becoming nicer towards their students.
“As a result, teachers are inclined to give students the benefit of the doubt.” Academic Dean, Richard Kassissieh.
However, some teachers have different attitudes towards grading.
“If anything, I feel pressure to grade lower. Largely, to hold that line against grade inflation. But certainly dealing with kids and their emotional reaction to grades,” English teacher, Christina Serkowski said.
On the other hand, students and teachers both have gained vast amounts of knowledge over the past few years.
“I assume that over the years, teachers have become more skilled and students have also become increasingly focused on grades. So it doesn’t surprise me that perhaps kids are earning higher grades than they were in past years,” Jaffe said.
However, as Kassissieh said, “Grades aren’t everything. We encourage students to look at comments and teachers work very hard to provide feedback that helps them think about what to improve, which is more important than being able to say, ‘I am a A student,’ which is the case currently.”
Although grade inflation is a recognized issue at many schools, there is not a straightforward solution. The obvious thing to do would be to expand the array of grades typically given to students. Currently, 90 percent of the grades given to students at U Prep are A’s or B’s.
“I would like to see a wider range of grades,” Kassissieh said. “But let’s say we were to redo [the grading system] tomorrow, people would be pretty upset. The students who thought of themselves as A students would be B students, and parents who thought their students who were getting B’s are suddenly getting C’s and wondering what effect that will have on college.”
Luckily, Herrington and Associate Director of College Counseling, Britten Nelson communicate to colleges what our grade spread is and what typical grades are. This helps colleges to understand what a certain grade means coming from U Prep as opposed to another school.
“At the end of the day I don’t think it has a big effect on colleges. But it has an effect on communication between teacher and student about how you’re doing in a class,” Kassissieh said.
Even though U Prep has evidence of some grade inflation, it is not as severe as the nearby public schools,
“I would predict that the numbers would be 30 or 40 kids in a graduating class with 4.0s.” Herrington said.
As a former college admissions director, Herrington ran into trouble at schools that had a lot of grade inflation.
“I couldn’t assess the rigor of that high school because every student was getting an A. Unfortunately, I had to focus on standardized testing,” Herrington said.
Due to grade inflation in some schools, more college admissions offices have to rely on test scores. Relying on test scores cause chaos when it comes to accepting students from a college admissions office view.
Because grade inflation is present at U Prep, it is an important factor for students, parents and faculty to be aware of.
By: Annie Cohen and Melissa Funes