Is the Sky Falling? Grade Inflation and the Signaling Power of Grades

Abstract

Grades are the fundamental currency of our educational system; they signal academic achievement and non-cognitive skills to parents, employers, postsecondary gatekeepers, and students themselves. Grade inflation compromises the signaling value of grades, undermining their capacity to achieve the functions for which they are intended. We challenge the ‘increases in grade point average’ definition of grade inflation and argue that grade inflation must be understood in terms of the signaling power of grades. Analyzing data from four nationally representative samples, we find that in the decades following 1972: (a) grades have risen at high schools and dropped at four-year colleges, in general, and selective four-year institutions, in particular; and (b) the signaling power of grades has attenuated little, if at all.

African American Homeschool Parents’ Motivations for Homeschooling and Their Black Children’s Academic Achievement

“…Percentile equivalents were converted to z-scores (Hopkins, Glass, & Hopkins, 1987). Means were calculated and statistical tests were performed using z-scores (Loveless, 2002;Pattison, Grodsky, & Muller, 2013;Tallmadge & Wood, 1978;Yin, Schmidt, & Besag, 2006). Missing data were handled listwise.…”

Altered grades: A grey zone in the ethics of classroom assessment

“…Current research on grading practices continues to explore variability, not only across institutions and educational systems, but also between teachers in the same system (Biberman-Shalev, Sabbagh, Resh, & Kramarski, 2011;Proitz, 2013;Randall & Engelhard, 2010;Resh, 2009). Grade inflation, the phenomenon of grade point averages rising without commensurate increases in achievement, is another area of ongoing research (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, 2012;Pattison, Grodsky, & Muller, 2013). A third concern that surfaces perennially in the news is grade alteration (e.g., Brown, 2012;Farran, 2009;Myerberg, 2013;White, 2013).…”

The relationship between grading and teacher judgment

“…In these studies, student grades are correlated with the results of standardized knowledge tests. The correlation between the grade and test scores in these studies oscillates between 0.4 and 0.6 (Carter, 1952;Farkas et al, 1990;Brennen et al, 2001;Woodruff & Ziomek, 2004;Duckworth & Seligman, 2006;Pattison, Grodsky & Muller, 2013). It is clear that there is a strong, but not absolute, overlap between the grade and student performance.…”