Harvard Tries Grade Deflation
This academic year, Harvard has endured a dark night of the soul, including (among other troubles) facing down the consequences of grade inflation and searching for curricular absolution. In a…
Posts tagged with
“grade inflation”
A Rough Guide To Merit
Placed prominently within President Trump’s controversial “compact” for higher education was a call to center merit in admissions. The president’s offer to universities, which followed more than a decade of…
Student Learning in the Higher Education Compact
Introduction The authors of the Trump administration’s Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education were right to label the section on grade inflation “Student Learning.” The section demands that grades…
The Pernicious Effects of Grade Inflation
Higher education is suffering from many woes, and the federal government (and sometimes Donald Trump in particular) often gets much of the blame for them. But one factor that, in…
Harvard Admits That Grades Have Lost Their Meaning
At many of the country’s most prestigious universities, an “A” has become a default instead of a distinction. It used to be a mark that indicated academic excellence and proficiency,…
Replacing Standards with Sympathy
Higher education once stood for rigor, accountability, and personal responsibility. But grade inflation and diluted curricula have already eroded the pretense of academic excellence. Now, a new initiative at the…
The Case Against Online AP Testing
This May, Advanced Placement tests for 28 of 36 AP subjects were held entirely online. Going forward, College Board will administer most exams through Bluebook, the central testing platform that…
Approaching Academic Armageddon
Over a mere two days recently (May 14-15), the major daily news outlets serving higher education, Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle of Higher Education, reported the following: Data collected…
The Consumer Mindset Undermines Colleges
A recent Inside Higher Ed Student Voice survey found that over 60 percent of college students view themselves as customers, an alarming sign for anyone concerned about the integrity and…
Solving the Grade-Inflation Problem
Educators on the right and left condemn grade inflation in K-12 and universities. Inflated grades mark the transformation of education from actual learning to credentialing. Grade inflation at America’s universities…