Grade Rate And Its Effect On College Education

Education is a long-term investment. We, as students, work hard to acquire knowledge and to hone our skills so that we may use them one day. The effort we put into a single assignment should be considered as both for that specific assignment and for our rounding as complete, educated individuals. And with this mindset, students should be motivated even more to put more effort and hard work into academics, with the goal of bettering themselves for the future and advancing their prospects as individuals. And with this hard work and effort will come progress, and this progress should be reflected in the grading—not necessarily on individual assignments, but on the student’s education as a

In the United States, the average grade has been slowly creeping up during the past years. This grade inflation has generally been seen as a positive for students and parents, but it has much more detrimental effects for the state of higher education. One person to address these consequences is Brent Staples, author of “Why Colleges Shower Their Students With A's.” In his essay, he not only explains how grade inflation came to be, but he also describes how it is something negative since it is the lowering of standards so that excellence is no longer excellent because of how easily higher grades is given out.

While reading Ken Bain’s book “What the Best College Students Do” of the five different types of students he describes, I feel like I fall under the label of one having mediocre grades but achieving success. I make good grades, however I do not necessarily believe my grades always reflect my hard work, determination and effort put in, similar to his theory on false hope in standardized testing. Throughout my school career, I have consistently made A and B grades. I can remember only one C grade, which was a quarter grade, and very disappointing, but a lesson learned. At the same time though, and as Bain helped me realize through his text, grades are not everything and making a C is not something that is going to kill me; there is simply more to school than a letter grade. In fact he points out through most of the 1800s schools only used two grades, pass or fail. As seen nowadays, schools have since adopted the letter grade system.

To counter the constant negativity, he also exemplifies solutions for fixing grade inflation. For example, Brent Staples references Valen Johnson’s proposal for a grade point average reform that accounts the selected major into the grade point average system (389). With this example, the reform will significantly decrease the median grade point average and reward those who achieve high grades in courses related to their respective major. Behind this positive message, Brent Staples still criticizes college administrators for prioritizing their public image over a legitimate grading system without the complaining tone in the majority of his essay. Furthermore, Brent Staple’s examples do solve an actual issue and not a phantom problem. In 1975 alone, there was over tens times more bachelors in psychology than there were available jobs for them (Bird 424). Because the current grading system allows for counterfeit grade point averages, there are an excessive number of psychology bachelors. Brent Staples provided solutions because this issue proves his criticisms in

Alfie Kohn discussed multiple fabulous points in his article, “Degrading to De-Grading”. The author suggests more effective ways to assess students’ progress other than numerical or letter grades. Kohn goes into detail about why our current grading system is flawed. Grades can cause students to lose interest in learning which causes them to stop taking challenges. If students are not engaged and interested than they are not retaining the information they are being taught. The grading system can also cause students to develop unhealthy competition with one another for instance, “I got a better grade than you!”. Indeed, grades are a wonderful concept, but they tend to be more hurtful than helpful. In some cases, grades can have positive effects on students. For example, setting goals for various assignments, or receiving help where they are struggling. Though, there are alternatives that could make positive changes in the system.

The primary reason for grade inflation has to do with students that make little effort towards major assignments. Rojstaczer discovered a survey that supports one of the reasons why students play a partial role for grade inflation. “A recent survey of more than 30,000 first year students across the country showed that nearly half were spending more hours drinking than they were studying. If we continue on this path, we’ll end up with a generation of poorly educated college graduates who have used their four years principally to develop an addiction to alcohol” (Rojstaczer 75).

In “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s”, Staples argues that teacher inflate grades so that their course will not be canceled. Furthermore, teachers will inflate grades so that they can keep their jobs. Additionally, students are trying to find ways to get

One example demonstrating that grades lead to limited learning of material, can be illustrated by a study that was conducted of students, some of whom were graded. One group of students was told about being graded and the other group was not. The group who was “told they’d be graded on how well they learned a social studies lesson had more trouble understanding the main point of the text than did students who were told that no grades would be involved” (Kohn). This experiment shows how students concerned getting a good grade detracts from the students overall understanding. In my experience, students have so much homework, activities, and pressure to excel that it becomes challenging to learn topics outside of those being assigned. For example, in order to complete history worksheets, students do not always read the passages to find the answers, but rather skim the passage for keywords

Throughout this essay, Brent utilizes ethos to prove that his view is valid. He includes professors from Ivy League colleges, the University of Pennsylvania, and Duke University to support his claim. By using people from a prestigious background in academia, Brent appears to be more educated on this topic. The majority of Brent’s article displays the use of logos. This is persuasion using facts and statistics to prove a point. An example is, “In some cases, campuswide averages have crept up from a C just 10 years ago to a B- plus today,” (Staples). This is a clean-cut statistic that verifies grade inflation is happening. However, it needed to be combined with other facts to illustrate an issue with grade inflation. Brent also states, “Twenty years ago students grumbled, then lived with the grades they were given. Today, colleges of every stature permit them to appeal low grades through deans or permanent boards of inquiry, (Staples). This, once again, shows that there is an increase in grades, but needs more information to demonstrate the concern. Brent’s conclusion explains this in saying, “Addicted to counterfeit excellence, colleges, parents, and students are unlikely to give it up. As a consequence, diplomas will become weaker and more ornamental as the years go by,” (Staples). Brent shows both evidence that grade inflation is happening and why it is harmful. To elucidate his view on why grade inflation happens, Brent primarily uses pathos, or appeal through emotions. Brent’s focus on pathos is the impact of low grades on professors and effect of low grades on students financially. Academic departments use high grades to maintain attendance in courses that would be canceled otherwise (Staples). By inflating grades, professors have a better chance of maintaining jobs. While referring the job security situation, Brent refers to part-time professors as “most vulnerable.” This

In Brent Staples' story, “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A's” he explains how grades have gotten higher in colleges over the past years. Students and parents seem to demand for grades because of what they pay for college. Professors sometimes have no choice but to give in, because it might look bad on them or to avoid classes from being removed.

In the essay “Why Colleges Shower Their Students with A’s” the author Brent Staples states that for the past years many colleges have changed their grading policies in order to make them less strict and more permissive. The author explains that there are several reasons behind this change. According to Staples, this trend is happening due to the need to make less appealing classes more attractive to students. Also, he adds that the demand from parents and students have led to more lenient grading policies to avoid hassle. Lastly, the author expresses that when professors do not give students high grades, they possibly will be given negative comments and evaluations from students that could affect their salary and tenure. Grade inflation devalues college diplomas and put society at risk.

The biggest issue with Sherry’s plan to stop grade inflation is that she didn’t account for the fact that there is no universal grading system in the world. Grades are based on a criterion set by a particular teacher, and the teacher is the final person to decide what grade the student receives. An A

    It's June, and another graduating class is hoping, among other things, to achieve high grades. Of course, "high" is a subjective target. Originally a "C" meant average; today however, the expectations and pressures to give and receive "A's" and "B's" takes its toll on teachers and students alike. This nullifies the value of the traditional grading scale and creates a host of entirely new problems. The widespread occurrence of grade inflation seriously affects the credibility of secondary and post-secondary education in America.

In “The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation,” Alfie Kohn sets out to determine if grade inflation is indeed fact or fiction. The opening quotes provided by two professors at Harvard University separated by over century has most definitely peaked my interest. It had me questioning whether or not these professors are holding our education system to a “Harvard” standard or is their actually truth to their statements; that feigned students are indeed submitting “sham work” (Bergmann, 260). Kohn goes onto indicate that: “To say that grades are not merely rising but inflated—and that they are consequently ‘less accurate’ now, as the American Academy’s report puts it-is to postulate the existence of an objectively correct evaluation of what a student (or essay) deserves” (Bergmann, 263). To theorize grade-inflation is to question the judgment and teaching of all the previous and future educators of America. It also raises the question of why has not there any concert data to support this claim. Why is our educational system delaying this investigation since this concern has been around for years? Especially, now that grade inflation is starting to gain more momentum.

The bar chart illustrates that most (approximately 60%) of the science students thought that the factors that affect the grade inflation was to ensure that the students do not get low grades in exam. Other than that, minority (roughly 20%) of the science stream students thought that the grade inflation was to improves the reputation of an institution or a school.