As the first semester draws to a close at most schools, students will soon be awaiting their exam grades – some, no doubt, feeling a sense of dread. But these days, thanks to persistent and widespread grade inflation, there’s far less reason for dread. In fact, by almost any measure, bad grades are in shorter supply throughout the American education system than they have ever been.
The statistics from American high schools tell a consistent and troubling tale. According to a recent study from ACT Research, the average high school GPA increased from 3.17 in 2010 to 3.36 in 2021. All core subjects were affected: For example, average English GPAs increased from 3.17 to 3.39 and math GPAs increased even more, from 3.02 to 3.32.
According to another study, nearly 50% of high school students carry A averages, with even more startling grade inflation trends at wealthier high schools. Some schools calculate their scale so that an A-minus computes to a 4.0 GPA. Many high school students seem to all live in Garrison Keillor’s fictional Lake Wobegon “where all the children are above average.”
While we would all like to believe that each of these grades has been earned, other (more objective) data suggests that is not the case. Most notably, while grades have gone up, standardized test scores have gone down. Performance by American high school students on the SAT, the ACT, the National Assessment of Educational Progress, and the Programme for International Student Assessment have all consistently declined over the past two decades, with many scores now at or near historical lows. The COVID disruption had something to do with this decline, but it does not explain the steady and widening divergence between high school grades and objective test scores.
This trend is not new; nor is it limited to high schools. In fact, colleges have often led the way. In the 1960s, the average GPA at Harvard was 2.6; it is now 3.8. A trend that started with the Vietnam War in the 1960s accelerated in the 2000s as a consumerist mentality became prevalent in education. Students and their parents came to view themselves as customers to be satisfied rather than students to be challenged. Perhaps then it is no surprise that across all four-year colleges in the US, the most commonly awarded grade is now an A.
But it is colleges that are now bearing much of the burden of grade inflation. Among other consequences, grades have lost some of their signaling value to college admissions departments. After all, if everyone gets an A, then it is impossible to determine which students are truly exceptional. This is one of the reasons standardized tests like the SAT and ACT have made a recent comeback with many selective colleges. Schools still need an objective measure of excellence, and grades are less useful for that purpose than they once were.
While students would seem to reap the benefit of more lenient grading standards, the truth is they suffer as well from this new reality. First, there is evidence that strict standards improve academic achievement. For example, a 2022 study from Brown University showed that teachers who are tough graders produce students who learn more content and master more skills.
Second, easy A’s deprive students of critical feedback on their academic progress. If students can earn outstanding grades without exceptional work, they do not learn the value of hard work, resilience, and discipline. Strong students may also see peers coasting to an A while they work tirelessly; this misaligns important incentives.
At Country Day, benchmark data shows that our teachers give fewer A grades than the typical private school. But these high standards do not necessarily punish our students. On the contrary, college representatives consistently tell us that our students’ grades are meaningful – that an A at Country Day still reflects genuine achievement in a rigorous program.
To truly tackle grade inflation, though, a bigger conversation is necessary among schools, students, and parents. Many schools feel they have no choice but to award high grades due to parents’ over-involvement in the increasingly high-stakes college admissions process. In a national survey, nearly 40% of teachers reported having been pressured to give higher grades than merited. But we may have reached the point where grade inflation is not even serving the interests of the students who are most focused on elite college admissions. For the sake of our children, we need to encourage schools to insist on genuinely high standards for academic achievement.
"Kindling a Fire" is a column submitted regularly to Indian Hill Living by Head of School Rob Zimmerman '98. This ran in the December 2024 edition of the publication.