Honest Grading, Grade Inflation, and Reputation

Abstract

Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen:Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use: Documents in EconStor may AbstractWhen grades lose their informative value because the percentage of students receiving the best grade rises without any corresponding increase in ability, this is called grade inflation. Conventional wisdom says that such grade inflation is unavoidable since it is essentially costless to award good grades. In this paper, we point out an effect driving into the opposite direction: Grade inflation is not actually costless, since it has an impact on future cohorts of graduates, or, put differently, by grading honestly, a school can build up reputation. Introducing a concern for reputation into an established signaling model of grading, we show that this mechanism reduces or even avoids grade inflation.

Young, gifted and lazy? The role of ability and labor market prospects in student effort decisions

“…Phenomena like grade inflation could play a role in explaining why students are reluctant with their effort if they expect that the informative power of their educational success is not very effective. 16 Note, however, that there are good reasons for schools of higher education to do everything possible to avoid the reduction of value of the degrees that they give to students, as pointed out by Ehlers and Schwager (2016).…”

Assessment Under Duress: Challenges to Physical Education Assessments and the Emergence of Compromised Norms

“…Both methods of scoring can perpetuate a cycle of mediocrity, where high-performing students are not sufficiently challenged, and lower-performing students do not receive the intervention they need (Boring & Philippe, 2019;El-Alayli et al, 2018). Over time, this can widen the achievement gap, contrary to the goals of equitable education systems (Anderson, 2018;Ehlers & Schwager, 2016;Griffith & Sovero, 2021).…”