This may sound incredibly old-fashioned, but I still like the idea that education is about learning: facts, skills, concepts, research, culture, analysis, inspiration. It’s supposed to enrich our lives and make us better citizens and independent thinkers.

But over the past fifteen years, the goal of learning has given way to indicators of learning: grades and diplomas. The unfortunate result was the inflation of both. They rise ever higher; learning does not.

I’ve written before about degree inflation: employers requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher for a job that really doesn’t require one. Fortunately, hiring managers have started to learn this and degree requirements have decreased in many fields.

But grade inflation continues. A 2022 Time analysis showed that grades in the Los Angeles Unified School District rose while standardized test scores fell — and the two weren’t close to each other.

Don’t pick on Los Angeles schools or students: grade inflation is pervasive and more common in rich areas. To avoid discouraging students, some school districts have removed Grades D and F. Grade point averages have steadily increased, even though scores on nationally standardized exams such as the SAT and the National Assessment of Educational Progress have not increased.

It’s not that I think standardized tests are the last word in measuring excellence. They have their own weaknesses. But when the gaps between grades and test scores are this immense and consistent, parents and the public should not be fooled.

This is not only true for low-achieving students. A report from the National Center for Education Statistics found that although high school students took more credits, took more difficult courses and earned higher grades in math, their actual mastery of the subject was reduced. denied. In a 2023 survey, educators said nearly half of students advocate for higher grades than they win, and 8 out of 10 teachers give in. It’s hard to blame them: a third or more of students and parents harass them when they don’t.

Unearned grades are detrimental in many ways. They distort the college admissions process, for example. While colleges once considered high school GPAs the best indicator of success in higher education, their predictive value has increased. denied. Although many schools have moved away from considering the SAT and ACT in admissions, selective schools are bringing them back. They need objective and reliable measurements.

Some students, armed with good grades, head to college only to find themselves in remedial classes because they have not learned enough to take college-level courses. Employers have complained for years that high school and even college graduates lack the basic skills needed in the job market. University professors complain that the students who come to them are not even good at read books.

As reformers and the U.S. Department of Education pressure colleges to improve graduation rates, it’s no surprise that grade inflation has followed students up ‘to post-secondary schools. Some teachers are hesitant to grade accurately due to student evaluationswhich are often more negative for difficult evaluators. Remember that about 70% of college professors are adjunct professors who have few job protections.

A lot Ivy League students learned to select teachers who were easy to grade. Yet a Brown University study found that students who took courses taught by professors with more rigorous grading standards learned more.

We need to ask ourselves as a society: do we want college to be a place of intellectual growth or a performative exercise in grade suppression?

There is a possible benefit to college grade inflation: lowered standards are associated with more students graduate. But I am less interested in the certificate they have than in what they have learned. The same goes for employers: one in six declares hesitate to hire recent college graduates because they tend to be unprepared and poor communicators.

No wonder 65% of Americans think they are smarter than the average. Parents are fooled into believing their bachelor’s degree students are academic stars and are stunned when they are rejected by selective universities. They don’t realize that these days A stands for Average.