As many students around the world explore further into the school system getting good grades especially receiving an A becomes the focus for a positive future and getting into college. Is grade inflation which is “awarding student’s better grades than earned either to maintain a school’s perfect record in academia or from lack of expectations from teachers (Dictionary.com, 2019). Grade inflation affects schools across the United States in public universities and even some Ivy League colleges. Grades given are not a true reflection of a student’s academic success. Grade inflation brings both advantages and disadvantages to students and school systems. However, there is an increase in possible solutions for this issue to lessen the negative impact.
The disadvantages of grade inflation fall heavily on the lives of students in various ways. A disadvantage for students is their view of their academic success after receiving these inflated grades. According to Gunn and Kapade (2018), recent graduates were left feeling hopeless with their grades since they portrayed false academic achievements. This issue left students with a feeling of uncertainty in how and if they were going to meet expectations and pressure put on by the school systems. In addition to all the bad, there is a possibility of grade inflation doing some good. Advantages for grade inflation are centered around the school systems in which they feel the pressure to keep their reputation and the only way to do that is rising their grades to meet other schools in the district. As for students these rising grades are believed to help in achieved a great future.
Some believe that grade inflation will make students believe that they will do well in anything and the possibility of getting ahead in the job market (Strauss, 2013). Grade inflation may bring in the false hope that these grades will bring them good fortune and at first it might get them through high school and possibly a few easy college courses but will not get them through everything. Some of the students in these situations may have not learned any real work ethic and will be in for an awakening of sorts but the students who unaware but still worked hard may not have as much trouble with their futures.
Students in grade inflation heavy schools with both get A’s but in a regular school, one should have gotten an A and the other a B which led to confusion about work ethic and motivation (Slavo, 2013). This issue could possibly lead students to believe that they are just like everyone else and must work harder to stand out which again may not be a bad thing in keeping them motivated to work but also how long will it last.
Now about how to fix a problem like this inflation which may not be a possibility due to how long it was to go on and the growth over the years. An issue with trying to find a solution for grade inflation is that trying to find a better way to evaluate student progress that is less demanding and intrusive. According to Oppenheimer (2016), a solution to this is a world with no grades and a better way to focus a student’s motivation and provide feedback. This is a great start but with no sure way to evaluate a student progress grades are going to have to stay and with that grade inflation. If this issue gets explored more and in a positive way schools could become a better place for learning and offer opportunities for students to distinguish what they know and do not know.
