At the beginning of junior year, I had a conversation with a friend who told me that he had trouble maintaining a GPA similar to his peers. He fell behind, not due to a lack of effort, but because he thought he didn’t “play the system” to maximize his GPA.
Throughout high school, many people, including myself, have picked more advanced classes in an attempt to boost their GPA. This conversation indicates a larger problem with grade inflation, a phenomenon described by Merriam-Webster as “a rise in the average grade assigned to students” for similar levels of academic achievement.
At JDS, many students cherry-pick easier Honors electives and Judaic classes to boost their GPA. This is incredibly damaging, as the weighted GPA discourages effort, and is indicative of a larger culture of grade inflation.
In 2023, the ACT tracked high school grades nationally between 2010 and 2022 and found a dramatic increase in English grades from roughly 80% to roughly 85%, and an increase in math grades from roughly 76% to roughly 84%.
This increase in grades has been gradual over time. According to the James G. Martin Center, in 1962 only 13% of grades were at an A- or higher, yet by 2012, 42% of grades were A level.
In 2022 alone, 89% of students nationwide earned an A or B in math, English, history and science according to the national Assesment of Educational Progress. Despite this increase, they saw a steady decline in average academic proficiency on national tests in these fields. This shows that the rise in grades did not necessarily correlate with an increase in academic achievement.
This movement of grade inflation has been driven by excessive pressure from students, with 44% of teachers saying that students often ask for better grades than they were given, and 80% of teachers reporting caving to this request at least once. This has resulted in school environments that often prioritize a uniform picture of success rather than actual learning.
This is partially motivated by growing competitiveness among colleges, with students wanting better grades so they can get into more competitive colleges.
The increasing presence of grade inflation encourages students to focus on grades rather than education and learning. The students strive for higher grades rather than knowledge, shifting the value of education and leaving students less prepared for college.
This atmosphere has hurt many high achievers, with a study from Southeast University showing that grade inflation can often result in grade compression. Grade compression is when higher grades are awarded for average performance, punishing students who try hard, as they receive the same grades as more average students.
The same study also found that grade inflation can mislead students regarding their own academic capabilities, with students often overestimating their own academic abilities, which could damage their potential in college and beyond.
According to the Pew Research Center, 38% of college students who start a degree program do not finish within six years or less, which hurts them financially as many have taken out money to pay for college. Students who drop out of college are less likely to get make liveable wages and repay loans.
Research from the ACT found that while more than half of students believed they were prepared for college, a third of students failed to meet basic benchmarks on tests. The study notes that grade inflation contributes to this as inflated GPAs misleads student to believe they achieved mastery.
This culture of grade inflation also poses issues in the already treacherous college admissions process, with many colleges struggling to differentiate high performing students from ones with simply inflated GPAs. Administrators at Kalamazoo College have had difficulties dealing with admissions in cases involving schools where the vast majority of students have 4.0 GPAs.
This atmosphere of grade inflation goes hand in hand with the immense pressure many high school students face to uphold their grades. According to Harvard University, 50% of students feel immense pressure to perform to unrealistic expectations, a standard perpetuated by grade inflation. This standard has been found to result in sleep deprivation, anxiety and burnout.
Many, including representatives in the Texas state legislature, have proposed measures such as “honest transcripts” to curb grade inflation; these methods would require schools to list the average grade for a given class alongside a student’s grade in context, showing the true merit of a grade at each school.
My friend wasn’t wrong. There is a system to be played for a high GPA, a system that rewards higher grades over learning and devalues true merit. Until we start truly valuing learning and being honest in our grading practices, cheating and mediocrity will continue to rise.
