If Everyone Gets an A, No One Gets an A
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/opinion/grade-inflation-high-school.html
Tim Donahue:
Also, it’s just so much easier to give good grades!
But when so many adolescent egos rest upon this collective, timorous deflection, it doesn’t do an awful lot of good. Passing off the average as exceptional with bromides like “wonderful” and “impressive” soothes the soul, but if there’s nothing there to modify these adjectives, teachers do little service to their colleagues who receive these students the next year…
It’s so easy to see grades as sheer commodities that we all but overlook their actual purpose — so far as I know — of providing feedback.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/23/opinion/grade-inflation-high-school.html
Tim Donahue:
Also, it’s just so much easier to give good grades!
But when so many adolescent egos rest upon this collective, timorous deflection, it doesn’t do an awful lot of good. Passing off the average as exceptional with bromides like “wonderful” and “impressive” soothes the soul, but if there’s nothing there to modify these adjectives, teachers do little service to their colleagues who receive these students the next year…
It’s so easy to see grades as sheer commodities that we all but overlook their actual purpose — so far as I know — of providing feedback.
AWOL from Academics
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/03/university-people-the-undergraduate-balance
In stark contrast, English professor James Engell told me that when he was a Harvard student, “there was a sense…that the primary reason for your being in the College was to take courses, and to spend a lot of time on them”—a belief which, in his eyes, has “eroded some.” Indeed, data from the Crimson’s senior survey indicates that students devote nearly as much time collectively to extracurriculars, athletics, and employment as to their classes…
HALF OF THE BLAME can be assigned to grade inflation, which has fundamentally changed students’ incentives during the past several decades. Rising grades permit mediocre work to be scored highly, and students have reacted by scaling back academic effort. I can’t count the number of times I’ve guiltily turned in work far below my best, betting that the assignment will nonetheless receive high marks.
https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2024/03/university-people-the-undergraduate-balance
In stark contrast, English professor James Engell told me that when he was a Harvard student, “there was a sense…that the primary reason for your being in the College was to take courses, and to spend a lot of time on them”—a belief which, in his eyes, has “eroded some.” Indeed, data from the Crimson’s senior survey indicates that students devote nearly as much time collectively to extracurriculars, athletics, and employment as to their classes…
HALF OF THE BLAME can be assigned to grade inflation, which has fundamentally changed students’ incentives during the past several decades. Rising grades permit mediocre work to be scored highly, and students have reacted by scaling back academic effort. I can’t count the number of times I’ve guiltily turned in work far below my best, betting that the assignment will nonetheless receive high marks.
Teachers Can’t Hold Students Accountable. It’s Making the Job Miserable.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/04/opinion/teachers-grades-students-parents.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/04/opinion/teachers-grades-students-parents.html
Nearly Everyone Gets A’s at Yale. Does That Cheapen
the Grade?
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/nyregion/yale-grade-inflation.html
A report found that close to 80 percent of grades were in the A range last academic year. A pandemic-era bump has stuck.
YALE - Grade Report 2022-23:
https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/9a0c325a00990358/6c01cc82-full.pdf
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/05/nyregion/yale-grade-inflation.html
A report found that close to 80 percent of grades were in the A range last academic year. A pandemic-era bump has stuck.
YALE - Grade Report 2022-23:
https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/9a0c325a00990358/6c01cc82-full.pdf