Why Alabama and West Virginia suddenly have amazing
high-school graduation rates
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/11/18/alabama-west-virginia-graduation/
Sure, students may lose specific knowledge if they are quietly passed in a home economics course they were about to fail, or allowed to make up a failed English class with an easy credit-recovery program. But their lost knowledge in those subjects may be less important than the knowledge they gain in other subjects simply by staying in school.
“Even if there was some relaxation of standards where they’re giving D’s instead of F’s, that’s keeping kids in school longer,” Harris said. “There’s more class time — they’re taking more courses as a result.”
Those courses may be producing a more skilled workforce and a more informed electorate — even if high school diplomas are a little bit easier to come by.
Sure, students may lose specific knowledge if they are quietly passed in a home economics course they were about to fail, or allowed to make up a failed English class with an easy credit-recovery program. But their lost knowledge in those subjects may be less important than the knowledge they gain in other subjects simply by staying in school.
“Even if there was some relaxation of standards where they’re giving D’s instead of F’s, that’s keeping kids in school longer,” Harris said. “There’s more class time — they’re taking more courses as a result.”
Those courses may be producing a more skilled workforce and a more informed electorate — even if high school diplomas are a little bit easier to come by.
Why Have College Completion Rates Increased? An Analysis of Rising Grades
https://www.nber.org/papers/w28710
ABSTRACT
College completion rates declined from the 1970s to the 1990s. We document that this trend has reversed--since the 1990s, college completion rates have increased. We investigate the reasons for the increase in college graduation rates. Collectively, student characteristics, institutional resources, and institution attended do not explain much of the change. However, we show that grade inflation can explain much of the change in graduation rates. We show that GPA is a strong predictor of graduation rates and that GPAs have been rising since the 1990s. We also find that in national survey data and rich administrative data from 9 large public universities increases in college GPAs cannot be explained by student demographics, preparation, and school factors. Further, we find that at a public liberal arts college, grades have increased over time conditional on final exam performance.
https://www.nber.org/papers/w28710
ABSTRACT
College completion rates declined from the 1970s to the 1990s. We document that this trend has reversed--since the 1990s, college completion rates have increased. We investigate the reasons for the increase in college graduation rates. Collectively, student characteristics, institutional resources, and institution attended do not explain much of the change. However, we show that grade inflation can explain much of the change in graduation rates. We show that GPA is a strong predictor of graduation rates and that GPAs have been rising since the 1990s. We also find that in national survey data and rich administrative data from 9 large public universities increases in college GPAs cannot be explained by student demographics, preparation, and school factors. Further, we find that at a public liberal arts college, grades have increased over time conditional on final exam performance.
Improving the Quality of Education
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/09/21/how-improve-quality-higher-education-essay
Derek Bok notes:
The vast difference between how well seniors think they can perform and their actual proficiencies (according to tests of basic skills and employer evaluations) suggests that many colleges are failing to give students an adequate account of their progress. Grade inflation may also contribute to excessive confidence, suggesting a need to work to restore appropriate standards, although that alone is unlikely to solve the problem. Better feedback on student papers and exams will be even more important in order to give undergraduates a more accurate sense of how much progress they’ve made and what more they need to accomplish before they graduate.
https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2017/09/21/how-improve-quality-higher-education-essay
Derek Bok notes:
The vast difference between how well seniors think they can perform and their actual proficiencies (according to tests of basic skills and employer evaluations) suggests that many colleges are failing to give students an adequate account of their progress. Grade inflation may also contribute to excessive confidence, suggesting a need to work to restore appropriate standards, although that alone is unlikely to solve the problem. Better feedback on student papers and exams will be even more important in order to give undergraduates a more accurate sense of how much progress they’ve made and what more they need to accomplish before they graduate.
--
My take:
Next step - politicians and 'enlightened thinkers' will suggest that everyone should be entitled to a college degree. As it is, many colleges are desperate to maintain their enrollment levels, and administrators are perfectly willing to lower admissions standards and ease graduation requirements. Meanwhile, external pressure and incentive structure force faculty to reduce academic rigor and inflate grades.
We should just give everyone a bachelor's degree at birth - we will automatically have a highly skilled workforce 😏. Why create any sort of barriers/hurdles or challenges? I guess 'pursuit of happiness' now means avoiding adversity at all costs.
UK has a similar problem:
The great university con: how the British degree lost its valuehttps://www.newstatesman.com/politics/education/2019/08/great-university-con-how-british-degree-lost-its-value
“According to Professor Fenton of Goldsmiths, “Students come to us now with an entirely different mindset. They want to know what you want to hear in order to get a First.” Students, she says, turn up expecting to find “bite-sized chunks of knowledge that you put in certain boxes. It’s that learnt process of gaming an A* [at A-level]. That’s the complete opposite to what a university education is.” Or rather, was. “That’s what changed,” she says. “Students have been shackled in the way they learn.” …
“Ideas that students readily understood ten to 15 years ago, they struggle to understand today,” Peter Dorey, professor of British politics at the University of Cardiff, told the Commons inquiry in 2009. “Many of them are semi-literate.” Dorey described seminars in which students sat listlessly, waiting to be told how to “pass our exams”. “They will brazenly admit to having read nothing,” he told the hearing.”