Informative Essay: Grade Inflation And Its Effects

Grade Inflation and its Effects At my high school, most of the students in my class were very competitive when it came to grades. Everybody always asking how one another scored on a test and comparing their own grade to the other’s. If someone received a C they usually had one of the lower grades on the test/assignment. However, a C is technically considered average, but in our school high B’s and A’s were far more common. This clearly shows how grade inflation has risen and continues to rise today, which worries teachers/professors. However, Jordan Ellenberg argues in his article, Don’t Worry Too Much About Grade Inflation, that there is no need for teachers/professors to worry that they are giving out too many A’s and contributing to grade inflation. In this review, we are going to dive into Ellenberg’s argument as well as look at multiple aspects of the grading system including the use of pluses and …show more content…
For some students this is more of a burden though because those who receive an A- in a class will now see their GPA drop. This higher standard requires students to reach an even higher GPA goal in order to be accepted into highly competitive graduate schools. However, the plus/minus grading system can also have advantages, such as more reliable grades. A study at Georgia State University showed that when the grading system switched from the traditional to the plus/minus system, there was an increase in reliability from .85 to .92 (Mohler). Therefore, the use of the plus/minus grading system allows schools to get a more reliable representation of a student’s abilities as well as less variability. The increase in the number of available grades also helps further separate students and thus decrease grade inflation. It is evident that there is no great solution on which grading system to use because both have advantages and