Grade Inflation in Higher Education: Debunking the Myth
This paper analyzes Alfie Kohn's 2002 essay "The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation," published in The Chronicle of Higher Education, examining the claim that rising grades in American universities reflect a decline in academic standards. The paper surveys the evidence Kohn marshals against the grade inflation narrative—including unreliable self-reported data, changes to the SAT, and the expanding diversity of college student populations—while also evaluating where Kohn's argument is strongest and where it leaves room for critique. The paper distinguishes between STEM disciplines, where rigor remains evident, and the humanities, where subjectivity in grading is more plausible, ultimately concluding that blanket charges of grade inflation obscure more than they reveal.
- Introduction: The Grade Inflation Debate: Cultural context and Kohn's central thesis introduced
- Kohn's Case Against the Myth: Evidence against grade inflation narrative examined
- The SAT as a Flawed Benchmark: SAT reliability as proof of inflation questioned
- Diversity, Demographics, and the Politics of Grading: Grade inflation rhetoric linked to anti-diversity sentiment
- Evaluating Kohn: STEM vs. the Humanities: Kohn's argument assessed discipline by discipline
- Redefining Rigor: New Pedagogies and What an 'A' Really Means: Creative assignments and self-directed learning reconsidered
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper engages critically with a single source rather than simply summarizing it, identifying both strengths and a specific flaw in Kohn's argument — demonstrating genuine analytical independence.
- It effectively distinguishes between STEM and humanities disciplines to nuance the grade inflation debate, moving beyond the blanket generalization that Kohn herself is criticized for accepting.
- The writer uses concrete examples — Microsoft, Apple, Google, remedial community college courses, and blue-book exams — to ground abstract claims about academic standards in recognizable reality.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper models a balanced rhetorical analysis: it reconstructs Kohn's argument faithfully, endorses its core logic, and then turns a critical lens on a specific methodological gap (the failure to disaggregate grading standards by discipline). This move — agree with the thesis, critique the execution — is a mature undergraduate analytical strategy that avoids both uncritical acceptance and strawmanning.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens by situating the grade inflation debate culturally before introducing Kohn's thesis. It then systematically works through Kohn's evidence (SAT unreliability, demographic diversity, political correctness rhetoric), offers a focused critique centered on disciplinary differences, and closes by reframing what an "A" means under newer pedagogical approaches. The conclusion redefines rigor rather than simply defending or dismissing it.
Introduction: The Grade Inflation Debate
Every student is familiar with the complaint: "It was so much harder when I was a boy or a girl." Not only did said grandparent have to trudge through five feet of snow — school was harder, too. However, it is not only irritating but loveable relatives who are grumbling about the fact that "back in my day, an A was an A." Many well-respected publications similarly endorse the idea that grade inflation is epidemic in the hallowed halls of American academia. According to Alfie Kohn, in 2001 the Boston Globe published an article stating in breathless horror that grade inflation was epidemic at Harvard — proven by the fact "that a lot of students at Harvard were receiving A's and being graduated with honors" (Kohn, 2002, p. B7).
Yet Kohn's essay demonstrates that much of the data regarding grade inflation is self-reported, anecdotal, and unreliable — just as when such hand-wringing occurred back in the 1960s, and the 1860s. Kohn implies that whenever there is anxiety about social change in the demographics of students attending institutions of higher learning, charges of grade inflation emerge. By questioning the validity of student grades, critics of multiculturalism implicitly critique the right of students from diverse backgrounds to be in college at all.
Kohn's Case Against the Myth
That is why Kohn titles her 2002 essay from The Chronicle of Higher Education: "The Dangerous Myth of Grade Inflation." No data supports the myth: grades in American institutions of higher learning actually declined slightly in 1995, according to the U.S. Department of Education. The most frequently cited "proof" of grade inflation is that SAT scores have dropped while grades have not. However, the fallacy that the SAT is a perfect barometer of student performance is demonstrated by the frequent changes made to that standardized test.
The assumption underlying charges of grade inflation is also that professors have a duty to "sort" students, that competition for scarce rewards is a universal good, and that harder grades are inherently motivational to higher-quality work. Kohn argues that there is no empirical data to substantiate this claim. Moreover, it could just as easily be argued that rewarding excellence gives students confidence. Shouldn't the intrinsic delights of learning be the motivation, rather than grades? And if students are better-prepared and doing higher-quality work at institutions such as Harvard, should they not be rewarded accordingly?
The SAT as a Flawed Benchmark
If the SAT is so perfect a measure of student excellence that it can be used as proof of grade inflation, why has an essay section been added? Why have analogy questions in the verbal section been eliminated? Why are students now allowed to use calculators? In short, why is this supposedly perfect test so different from what it was in previous years? If the SAT has had to change to meet the needs of the times, why should standards for student performance in the classroom remain frozen? The implication of the grade inflation charges is that there is one single, unyielding, correct way of judging students for all time, and that we have deviated from it as a society.
Moreover, as Kohn points out, more people are now taking the SAT. The population taking the exam is more academically diverse and includes many people who would never previously have considered attending college, and who lack the financial means for expensive test-preparatory courses. The similar complaint that remedial classes have grown more common in colleges also reflects this more diverse student population. Furthermore, it is not students at Harvard, Yale, or Princeton who are taking remedial classes in greater numbers — it is the new influx of students attending community colleges, students who would never once have dreamed of attending college at all.
Reference
Kohn, A. (2002, November 8). The dangerous myth of grade inflation. The Chronicle of Higher Education, 49(11), B7.
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