If you’re an old fogie like me then you may have been similarly perplexed over the years as to how high school and university students were able to achieve extremely top marks yet seemed exceptionally ignorant about so-called basic facts. Quiz many of them on basic economics or history or geography or even the Times Tables and more often than not a blank stare is all you get back.
There is now an explanation for this and it lies in a trend called Grade Inflation. Simply put, this is the tendency of student grades to rise over time. There are several possible reasons for this phenomenon. All of them should lead employers to be very suspicious about the veracity of transcripts provided by younger applicants.
Some educators are trying to fight back against it but guaranteed there will be a lot of forces pushing back against them. Too many students now feel entitled to top marks even if they’ve done little to no work to justify them.
The following chart, though intended to be humorous, does drive home the fact that grade inflation is an extremely serious problem:
Failing grades bring the teacher and system into question. That is the absolute last thing that anyone wants. Right?
CT, you’re 100% right. That is why teacher’s unions are sooooooooooo against uniform, standardized tests.
Last year’s case of Edmonton teacher, Lynden Dorval, drummed out of the public school system for daring to give zeros for uncompleted assignments, is a clear warning sign of how corrupt the system has become.
Another grand social experiment, rapidly failing as it runs out of other peoples money.
When your sense of self worth depends on believing everyone if stupid, I guess you teach them to be dumber.
The coming economic collapse will help the self worth of these poor little dears, of course it will be the fault of us taxpayers for failing to give them the education they demand.
“I have a right to be given an education”. Remember her?
But the real education is at the universal school of hard knocks, which does wonders for correcting ideology that diverges from reality.
I think humans only learn through pain.
My daughter had a math exam two weeks ago that she studied for(with me) until midnight. Much to my chagrin, I heard her alarm clock the next morning at 5am, as she was intent on hitting the books before school and her exam. A day later the teacher told the kids that the majority of the students have failed the exam. My daughter tells me that many of the kids were scoring about 10-20%. In her case, she got a 65%, which was among the highest in the class; but well below her average.
With that said, I have a few points.
1) my daughter tells me that the ‘usual suspects’ were upset with their marks, felt it wasn’t fair, and actually told my daughter that she was “lucky” she got a good mark. This upset her quite a bit, because she knows what they really mean is ‘you are lucky because you are white’. You see, most of the ‘usual suspects’ are black and or Hispanic, and they often accuse the teachers of ‘racism’, as white, Asian, and middle eastern students tend to do marginally better.
2) the teacher had acquiesced somewhat and given the students an opportunity to regain 50% of the marks they didn’t get; if, they turned-in a document, in sentences, explaining where they went wrong on the specific questions, and how to do it correctly. My daughter tells me that many of the usual suspects didn’t bother to turn-in the make-up assignment; and, still had the nerve gripe about the “fairness” of the exam.
I’m not surprised that the ‘usual suspects’ cried foul about their exam, as they’ve been taught from birth that they are unsuccessful because of their skin, and others that are successful are successful because of their skin. Actually, most SDA readers are well aware that today, an exam that blacks perform poorly on as a group, is in fact a ‘racist exam’. This false premise regarding racist exams, and the victimhood mentality that spawns such ridiculousness, is a large contributor to grade inflation. Also, I believe that make-up opportunities such as the one the teacher offered in my example contributes to grade inflation in its own way.
Finally, I believe the greatest contributor to grade inflation is the commie teachers unions. If you accept the premise that the dumbing-down of the education system, or which I call the ‘theft of our kid’s educations’ is deliberate tactic to produce good little socialists (Democrat/Liberal voters); then, it can be no surprise that the unions dictate that grades MUST be inflated to HIDE this insidious scam, by covering up the tracks of the dwindling returns for our education investment.
I have worked with many young recent high school and college graduates. What at first amazed me, was their lack of basic knowledge,especially basic English.
I’ve found few who could construct a coherent sentence,and their penmanship was so bad it was almost impossible to read. The “times table” must not be taught anymore as when a simple problem comes up on a job, “there are nine studs per wall,and we have 15 walls to put up”, the kids whip out a calculator and have the sum in no time. Sheesh.
I have fun at coffee breaks whenever we discuss history as they don’t seem to have studied that,either. I’ve had a kid ask if I ever did military service,and when I replied,”yes,I’m a Boer War veteran”, they nod and go,”oh yeah”. I DO have white hair,though, so,I’m the “old guy”.
The teachers federation out here fights tooth and nail to not have Provincial exams and are currently studying “other methods” of determining a student’s level of knowledge and skills. Anything that won’t reflect on the mediocrity of the teachers will be okay.
When I attended University of Toronto in the 1970’s (Geology and Chemistry), I recall university administration setting the benchmark at about 10% deserving an A grade (presumably A- to A+). Class averages were typically C+ to B-. I hope it’s the same today (it is the sciences after all).
Posted by: john robertson
“I have a right to be given an education”. Remember her?
Unfortunately forgotten by many people is the other half of the equation, “an obligation to learn”. You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. The education system no longer teaches “how” to think, now it’s only “what” to think. About 15 years ago I worked with a woman in her early 20’s, she had no idea where “Wales” was and insisted on putting the address on the envelope as “Whales”. One of the results of never giving out a “0”, you now have people showing up for work that feel that because they have “arrived” entitles them to a paycheck. The idea that they may have to actually perform various tasks while on the job site is completely foreign to them and beyond their belief.
It’s not “grade inflation” so much as the stated aim of the public school system to teach their victims/students “how to think”. This is so much more fun for teachers, than say, plodding through sentence structure, spelling, and other such boring basics.
As to “multiplication tables”, I have tutored young people in grades 10 through 12, and found that their problem is, really, ignorance of the multiplication table. You see, learning these numbers would require (gasp!) MEMORIZATION on the part of the victims/students. The fact is that you CANNOT solve any algebraic equation without having the multiplication tables at your fingertips. But, we cannot ask the little snowflakes to work at learning anything, can we?
For some 2 generations, we have taught history without dates, math without numbers, reading without spelling (or reading), and writing without grammar. And we are surprised as our civilization implodes.
Ontario has the worst grade inflation. Back in the mid 90s i went to queens coming from montreal. I spent a lot of time tutoring complete idiots with a+ averages in high school, averages higher than mine, who needed my help in pretty well every course they were taking. I simply could not believe them when they mentioned their high school marks. The standards in ontario were alien to me, it seemed you could get an a+ with almost no academic knowledge, achievement, aptitude or propensity to succeed in university. It was the ontario students that as a whole showed such a disconnect from their high school marks.
Every time dmorris comments on an “education has changed” thread, I feel I’ve worked with him and the same group of 24 year old guys as he has. I’ve never told the guys how terrible things were during the Boer War though.. ..
When I returned to school in my 40’s I remember the actual *fear* of not passing a class, the same dread from grade school that chases kids down hallways in their nightmares. It took all of 1 week to realize I’d gone from “average student” in my youth, to the second highest in math class during middle age. And, that the parts of math that I’d never needed to know back in high school were now the parts of math that weren’t being taught anymore. Loved science though, always.
When I was in college to learn aircraft maintenance our instructor told us how our exams would be graded.
Originally to pass an exam the student had to obtain a mark of 70% or better as ‘we don’t want 50% people working on planes’. In the late ’70s parents started complaining that their pwecious little boy was being flunked by mean instructors holding them to impossibly high standards. The college appeased the parents by lowering the pass mark to 50% but for every wrong answer 2/3 of a percent would be deducted from the percentage earned for correct marks. The angry parents went home happy, not realizing that 70% – (30 x 2/3)= 50% so the student still needed to answer 70 questions correctly to pass.
If you don’t have a good grasp of mathematics the wool will be pulled over your eyes everytime.
I’ve done much tutoring as well, and I concur that the multiplication tables are a large part of the problem; and, I can attest to the stories, as my daughter was receiving A’s and B’s in math (in Saskatchewan) without having a complete grasp the multiplication table. I realized the issue when my daughter(the one mentioned in an earlier comment) was having a difficult time reducing fractions. You see, at my daughter’s school in Tempe, the math teacher does not give partial marks; it’s all or nothing. So, when my daughter was trying to catch-up with the curriculum she was getting killed on the exams. Simple things such as not seeing that 9/3 = 3 or that 4/16 = ¼ were getting her zeros on questions that were otherwise correct. The scary part is… I thought she knew the tables because I’d been assuaged by her ‘inflated’ marks; and, I recall teaching her them in elementary school. I suspect using calculators had caused her to forget that which she previously knew; but I digress. Also, without memorizing the multiplication tables, one cannot properly factor equations such as quadratics(grade 8 math) which is crucial moving forward. This means kids that cannot multiply or divide quickly in their heads are doomed mathematically speaking as early as grade 7.
The insidious tragedy is, these issues are easily identified, but rarely acted upon. JMO
I was first introduced to this phenomenon in the 1990’s. PT schools had an effective GPA cutoff of about 3.9. A perfect score on all courses, straight A’s, is a 4.0 GPA. My perfectly respectable B average from the 1970’s indicated total illiteracy by 1990 standards.
So I re-did it all for two years and got a 3.9 without much trouble. Mostly by dropping courses with unreasonable instructors and taking bird courses, to concentrate on math, physics, chem and anatomy. Upon entering the super demanding, super hard to get into PT school, I found the rest of the students to be mostly unremarkable young women with sharp elbows and an attitude. Not my first pick to be healers of the sick, frankly.
When I asked older instructors about the obvious grade inflation and generally lax exams, I was told it mostly started in the Vietnam War. Instructors would pass kids to keep them from getting drafted. Add all the affirmative action and assorted other lovely liberal stupidities, thirty years later kids get a B for showing up to lectures. Oh, and pay $100k for it.
Just one more way that Big Government one size fits all policies have warped and fractured society.
I forgot to mention above that the students are not allowed to use calculators at school.
So God Made A Liberal http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUzMPlQb2G4
The grade inflation has a second purpose. Parents in the US are disturbed by reports of failing schools, but they don’t press for real reforms because, “Our school is fine”. They reach this questionable conclusion because their little genius gets A’s and B’s.
An aside, in our neighborhood when I was a HS student was a man who trained for the Boer war as a student (he didn’t reach draftable age until the hostilities stopped).
My girlfriend is a PhD candidate and teaches part time at a Canadian university. Even here, the system has been dumbed down. Now, students take exams, get graded and then call a meeting with the prof to negotiate a better mark. At first, my girlfriend resisted and refused to negotiate but then the students just go to the department head and complain. The DH has a word with the prof and voila! Everyone gets higher marks just for asking (and some get even higher marks because “my aunt died and I had to go to the funeral when I really wanted to study”).
Undergrad degrees are the new high school diplomas.
Case in point.
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/mc-lehigh-university-student-sues-over-grade-20130211,0,937005.story
My sister-in-law teaches at a college in Ontario and has told us the same thing at that school.
This is entirely relevant …. Is America Getting Dumber?
It starts with the political knobs and works it’s way through the system.
This is exactly why so many useless people who shouldn’t have graduated from HS go on to get useless lib-arts degrees which only qualify them for “do you want fries with that?” jobs.
When I went to university many decades ago, one needed a high SAT score to get in. Have the SATs been corrupted too?
Of course the population is getting dumber, it makes them much easier to control.
There are a lot of problems with ignorance among students. Recently it was noted that many Arts students couldn’t locate the Atlantic Ocean on a map – as this is in St. John’s, it was regarded as a bit unsettling.
In one course I use “per ardua ad astra” as a motto, with due attribution to the RCAF (etc.). When I began this practice in the `80s the usual response was, “what does that mean?” Now the question put is, “is that French?”
A reference to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John is most likely to elicit a question as to whether that is some old rock group.
Grade inflation? You bet! Keeps bums in seats, to facilitate funds extraction.
Heather, while I agree with you that the stated aim is teaching kids “how to think”, my own experience talking with high-school teachers is that the majority have not mastered the ability yet themselves. Yes, my conclusions are purely based on anecdotal evidence but I strongly suspect I’m correct in extending my assumptions over a much larger swath. 🙁
All I know for certain is that 80% of the graduates I hire for summer work every year can’t read, write or spell and if the battery goes dead in their calculator they are lost. I have seen the deterioration in work ethics over the past 20 years and favor students that come from a farming background. Better workers more common sense and less ingrained entitlement. Also find more students applying for work with their mother in tow. Never fathers for some reason. Long story short, the education system has failed them miserably.
This is exactly why so many useless people who shouldn’t have graduated from HS go on to get useless lib-arts degrees which only qualify them for “do you want fries with that?” jobs.
When I went to university many decades ago, one needed a high SAT score to get in. Have the SATs been corrupted too?
Great comments, Indiana Homez.
There’s one more I would add: grade inflation hides the utter incompetence of the local school board as they administer the monopoly granted them by the unwitting voters. If all the other reasons for grade inflation disappeared, this one would forever remain, as most parents don’t know from nothing, so long as Johnny and Jane bring home report cards loaded with 99% averages in every class, Never do such high marks alarm the parents, as GPA’s are major determinants of who get scholarships, or even admitted to college. So, in this respect, parents have a large incentive to remain dumb.
Some parents are going for the home-schooling option, which is, I think, the best one. Surely, a whole profession that believes that its goal is to ‘teach children to think’ is a foolish one, one that should be avoided by any rational being.
My niece refuses to have a TV in her home, so her children read books. And another family I know of, living off the grid as it were, have kids who read books, and are handy around the family business.
University is dumbed down too. I had an employee, a nice girl who had graduated from HARVARD, in the Fine Arts department. She had never heard of “Wordsworth”. And then, I heard from an employer who had hired a PRINCETON grad, who didn’t know that West Virginia and Virginia are 2 separate states.
I would like to ask the professional grievance peddlers who claim “the test is racist” a simple question: Let’s say that the folks who create the tests were to come up with a brand new version from the ground up. Completely new. Let the race hustlers look at it for as long as they want to find where the racism is, as they seem to think they can smell it two miles away hiding behind a rock. When they are satisfied that all of the test’s racism has been heroically eradicated, then it can be released to the public for students to take. And if the results are not to their liking, then the problem isn’t racism…and if they claim it is, then that means the race hustlers are racist themselves, right? Think any one of them would take up that offer?
8th Grade Final Exam 1895 year:
http://www.mindingthecampus.com/forum/2008/04/then_and_now.html
Thanks…
Don’t blame the teachers for grade inflation. Blame them for spinelessness, perhaps. Very few parents complain that their kids grades are too high. Lots complain when they are too low. Principals rarely pressure a teacher to fail a borderline student. Students behave better for a teacher who gives out easy grades (without making it look too easy).
A whole lot of that “teacher accountability” we ask for has the net effect of grade inflation.
My pov is that everyone who is not a “low information voter” who is on the Left is a disingenuous creep; therefore, even if you could pull-off such a ‘trap’, they would just deny it and carry-on with their cries of “racism”. For example, just look at the “Say it Isn’t So Joe” thread; it’s the same thing. JMO