This essay presents a first-person student perspective on grade inflation in American higher education. Drawing on national GPA trend data from 1991 to 2007 and examples from elite institutions such as Harvard, the author argues that rising grade point averages reflect not increased student achievement but rather weakened academic standards, rampant cheating enabled by the internet, and declining faculty resolve. The paper surveys commonly cited causes of grade inflation, engages with counterarguments, and ultimately asserts that rigorous academic challenge is essential to developing student character and preserving the value of a college degree.
This paper demonstrates effective use of the concession-and-rebuttal technique. After presenting the counterargument that students are harmed by overemphasizing grades, the author concedes the emotional validity of that view before pivoting to a reasoned defense of academic rigor. This move strengthens rather than weakens the thesis by showing intellectual honesty.
The essay opens with a personal narrative establishing the problem, moves into national data and institutional examples to broaden the scope, surveys expert-cited causes, addresses a major counterargument, and closes with a values-based appeal for maintaining academic standards. This classic problem-causes-counterargument-conclusion structure keeps the argument focused and progressively persuasive.
I am a senior at a university where both of my parents also attended many years ago. In just the three-plus years that I have been a student here, I have noticed a trend in grading that I find disturbing. It seems to me that many students are finding it increasingly easy to get and maintain a 3.0 GPA — something I believe a college student should really have to work hard for. My parents claim that although competition was not nearly as fierce among students when they were younger, professors expected class participation, extensive term papers, and a great deal of homework.
I have tried to keep myself challenged by aiming for above-average grades in all subjects, but I find myself losing interest and even becoming lazy as so many of my peers spend so little time actually studying, yet still earn B averages. I am concerned that rampant cheating via internet resources, as well as a weakening of resolve among professors, is causing serious grade inflation and character deflation.
Across the nation, statistics show that just between the years 1991 and 2007, grade point averages at private schools rose on average from 3.09 to 3.30 (Rojstaczer, 2002). This is a significant change; surely students are not getting that much smarter. Such a dramatic shift since 1991 is arguably due in large part to the advent of the internet and its copious resources — a goldmine for cheaters.
Most disturbing of all, however, is the fact that so much of this inflation is taking place at America's finest educational institutions, such as Harvard (Schiming, 2009). This could be due to cheating; more likely, it is due to professors who believe that if a student has jumped through enough hoops to gain admission to Harvard, the hard work is essentially over. That attitude, of course, makes the professors' jobs much easier as well. But if the nation is producing Harvard graduates who coasted their way to good grades, and these individuals will be regarded as future experts in their fields, that does not bode well for the United States. Among the problems associated with grade inflation are poor quality of work, moral and intellectual decline, an inability to accurately measure success through grades, and public dissatisfaction with educational institutions (Dresner, 2004).
Experts cite many possible explanations for grade inflation over the past twenty years: institutional pressure to retain students, sympathy for students' personal circumstances, teachers seeking approval from students because they are evaluated by them, giving "A's for effort," lax overall grading policies, faculty attitudes, content deflation or lowered expectations regarding the amount of material to be mastered (Schiming, 2009), or even the assumption that "it has always been that way."
For example, there is a well-known quotation about grade inflation, attributed to someone at Harvard and dating back to 1894:
"Grades A and B are sometimes given too readily — Grade A for work of not very high merit, and Grade B for work not far above mediocrity . . . One of the chief obstacles to raising the standards of the degree is the readiness with which insincere students gain passable grades by sham work." (fortyquestions, 2010)
This historical example suggests that grade inflation is not an entirely new phenomenon, yet its persistence — and apparent acceleration — makes it no less urgent a concern today.
So maybe it is not a big deal — maybe there is nothing we can do about it. As Alfie Kohn writes in his article "The Cost of Overemphasizing Achievement," the real underlying problem may be that students are discouraged and frustrated by an overemphasis on grades (Kennedy, 2010). I disagree. As much as students dislike hard work, the fact remains that only when we are challenged to achieve — through rigorous, formally measured standards that still hold genuine meaning — do we grow in character and depth.
Isn't that what college should be about? Shouldn't it involve a curriculum challenging enough to build and test character? If students at Harvard are not struggling to succeed, how can we assign any merit to an Ivy League degree? Academic standards serve a purpose beyond sorting students; they cultivate integrity, resilience, and genuine competence.
Rojstaczer, S. (2002). National Trends in Grade Inflation. Retrieved December 2, 2010, from http://www.gradeinflation.com/
Schiming, R. (2009, October 9). Grade Inflation Article. Retrieved December 2, 2010, from www.mnsu.edu: http://www.mnsu.edu/cetl/teachingresources/articles/gradeinflation.html
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