The Morning Call: Some honesty please, about what grades mean

From The Morning Call

April 2, 2007

Some honesty please, about what grades mean

''Grade inflation constitutes a hoax to the person in the street.''

PERRY ZIRKEL

High-stakes testing and high school reform are two of the most pressing issues facing our public schools today. Educators repeatedly bemoan the undue emphasis on testing and point fingers at the national No Child Left Behind Act. Employers and colleges, meanwhile, look at the incoming crop of unprepared graduating seniors and see a pressing need to reform the high schools.

For an oft-publicized higher education problem that has, for some reason, escaped attention at the high school level, recent news should sound the alarms. A few days ago, the U.S. Department of Education issued the latest Nation's Report Card, finding that the average grade point of high school grads had increased to a 2.98, approximately a B letter grade. If this seems curiously high, you're right. Only slightly more than one third of all seniors scored at the ''proficient'' (i.e., passing) level on last year's National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP) reading test. Math scores met a similar fate; less than one quarter of the high school seniors are proficient in this area.

This problem -- and it is a problem -- is called grade inflation. It's a situation akin to monetary inflation, where your money decreases in value while the credibility of the currency diminishes. However, unlike monetary inflation, which is continuously monitored and controlled in the public eye, grade inflation constitutes a hoax to the person in the street. To him, a C is an average grade and an A -- or a 4.0 grade point average -- is exceptional.


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