Summary
High school grades have shot up while students’ real learning has fallen.
Easier grading, pressure from parents, and “equitable” policies have made giving high marks simple.
That teaches students to coast, hides problems, and means schools must restore honest, rigorous grading.
Highlights
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This fall, ACT released a new study tracking high school grades over the past decade—finding a dramatic bout of grade inflation, even as the National Assessment of Educational Progress showed steady declines in academic performance.
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the 2019 NAEP High School Transcript Study found that students were getting better grades than those a decade earlier but were learning less.
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Mansfield became known for his practice of giving students two sets of grades: one that reflected Mansfield’s own assessment of the students’ performance and another “based on the system of Harvard’s inflated grades.”)
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to push schools to eliminate zeroes, end graded homework, drop penalties for late work and missed assignments, and offer endless retests. The upshot is to teach students that deadlines are optional and consequences aren’t real.