A Glimpse of Grade Inflation and Its Opposite

IMG_1270Suddenly I realize that I have over 400 pages of a book now without a single concrete reference to grade inflation. How did that happen? I can’t claim I made a concrete decision to duck the topic. I did not exactly ignore grades. I have described the “50%-floor” grading concept that allows students to receive 50% on the papers they never turn in. Yes, more than one school I know has flirted with this system, the rationale being that students do not give up because they can always catch up.

But grade-inflation itself? I realize I have accepted grade inflation. The “C” of my youth has become a “B” and even sometimes an “A.” I will admit I have contributed to the problem. I have given points for completion rather than accuracy. I have given grades that weighted participation highly enough to ensure a strong effort could never result in less than a “C” or even a “B.”

The pendulum has been swinging back towards mastery-based grading. Lately we discourage participation and effort grades. We may even base an entire final grade on test and quiz results. I can understand and support the shift. An “A” math student should be able to do the math in his or her textbook. An “A” English student should be able to write a coherent and well-organized essay. An “A” science student should understand scientific method, at least by middle school.

This overdue shift to mastery-based grading seems a move in the right direction. I have read too many sad stories about students who entered college and promptly got academically clobbered, only to remark, “But I always got As and Bs in high school!” Fictions don’t prepare students for real-life challenges.

But I also think we ought to pause to consider the effect of our midstream, changing policies on students who suddenly find themselves failing or near failing. During that last year of my formal teaching, when I was required to give all those Common Core tests with questions that almost none of my students could read or answer, when I was required to base grades almost entirely on tests and quizzes, I regularly heard a version of the “always got As and Bs” line. How did these students reach seventh grade testing at a third-grade level or even lower, while still having received A and B grades in elementary school? That’s an excellent question, far too gigantic for this one post.

I will make only one observation: I made many of my students feel absolutely stupid that year, despite all my best efforts to keep them in the game, despite all my work on growth mindsets, despite the burritos I bought them at Saturday tutoring, despite all the test retakes I let them take after we had gone over their latest results, despite all the effort by parents, siblings and other unofficial tutors, despite all the encouragement I could dish out, despite all the techniques I found to keep student interest up while simultaneously plunging those students in over their heads daily.

Eduhonesty: If we decide to truly tackle grade inflation, I will support the effort. Honest grades will benefit our students more than petty fictions that fall apart as soon as “Sam” decides to take English 101 in college. But I hope we will also remember that the transition year for our kids will be a lot like falling into a real version of that nightmare where you discover you have skipped a class all semester that you forgot you signed up for, a class with a final in the building you can’t even find.