2016/3/26
The Meaning Behind Grade Inflation
Academic grades of student have gained a critical rank in the prediction of the student level of achievement and hence the efficiency of the academic process within educational institutions. For example, The “B-Minus Reigns Supreme” is a 2008 article by Laurie Fendrich on grade inflation in institutions of higher learning. It shows an increasing over-emphasis on the importance of scoring a “B” and the expense of equally good “C” grades. Rampant grade inflation has been witnessed at all levels of educational institutions since the 1960s. Grade inflation presents challenges at the less elite educational institutions which have failed to resist the grade inflation trend. Since the 1980s, grade inflation becomes an issue of controversy and debate again, especially when the inflation is tied to student analysis and subject of absorbing more students to departments.
This occurred mostly around the 1960s when university enrolled more students to treasure education. The grade inflation alarm finds its basis in two related fields where students today seems to achieve less possessing fewer mastery skills they students did in the past years. The cause of inflation happened following a desire of professors to become favorites among students. Secondly, there seems to be growing concerns about student evaluations of faculty and grade inflation. This follows the desire of lecturers becoming favorites to students which reduced chances that the teachers would inform their students the truth about their academic achievements. Instead, teachers encouraged high-grade performances meaning grades carried the true meaning of success of student to guardians and employers. In any case, the narrow margin between the grades determinea an individual’s likelihood of becoming successful in future.
Academic evaluation continues to prove to challenge for every stakeholder in the academic world. This evaluation presents an integral part of the education system for administrators and members of the faculty in institutions of higher learning. Therefore, without question, grading is an important task that teachers perform on behalf of their colleges. Notably, while students resent getting average grades, the administration does not fancy being on the receiving end of educational regulators concerning inflation. Amidst such contrasting demands are members of faculty caught between maintaining quality and happiness at administrative and classroom levels, respectively.
However, the effects of this practice hurt everyone from the student through to the entire society as follows. For the student, inflation implies instant yet short term satisfaction. Such students lack the long-term positive feedback concerning their coursework grades. As a lifelong process, academic evaluation cannot be short term rather opens up pathways for subsequent professional growth and development.
The results of grade inflation affect the whole society from the student, parents, and even employers. Inflation to a student means satisfaction. But this satisfaction is immediate and short term since it makes them lack long-term actual knowledge about their studies. This should be discouraged since academic evaluation should just be used to open ways for subsequent professional development and growth. Inflated grades have no effect on the development of kind of ambitions required by students in the academic fields of global perception. For the faculty and college administration, inflation implies the birth of a devalued product. University Competition, Grading Standards, And Grade Inflation” hint that the primary purpose of higher education is learning to survive in a highly specialized corporate world. Such effects situations would question the effectiveness of higher education and the general preparedness of a student for the job market.
A lot of resources and funds are being spent in quality education by governments and parents, yet they are receiving substandard products through grade inflation. Grade inflation means that educational systems are becoming less vigorous, and educational institutions are not preparing students as they are supposed to be which risks the skills and knowledge transferred to students. Further, for the society and government, inflation means that colleges and universities do not prepare students as well as they ought to. It questions the skills, knowledge, and willingness to work given the grades acquired for members of a cohort. Grade inflation situation results in an ever-rising worker shortage of qualified individuals ready to work in a technical capacity. Ideally, half-baked graduates lack the necessary skills required to occupy and keep vacancies across various employment platforms.
Contrarily, grades pegged on academic rigor and hard work would have the following effects. First, they would rise student’s satisfaction because they follow a true reflection of academic accomplishments. True satisfaction in higher education comes after students find solutions to a series of intellectual challenges. There was a time when grades were no more and no less than measures of knowledge. In such times, such challenges played a vital role in developing the student’s self-esteem and level of accomplishment. If such moments reappeared, students would become self-satisfied with their achievements no matter how low their grades appear on an aggregated platform.
Uninflated grades are advantageous in that; they raise student satisfaction as they reflect true academic achievements, faculty and administration witnesses an improvement in academic confidence and rigor hence quality performance, the existence of student societal intellectualism and perseverance.Eventually, the feeling will lead to a productive and well-adjusted adult who acts to the true level of their thinking capacity.
Also, both the faculty and administration would witness an improvement in academic rigor and confidence. It works towards a guaranteed recognition of the institution and faculty as part of the academic giants on a national level. From the professors’ perspective, a huge chunk of tenure attempts to free them from the pressures of teaching and research for professional stability. The move towards quality performance, as opposed to grade inflation, works for them pushing students into exemplary behavior.
Besides, quality grades mean a rise in student perseverance and societal intellectualism. Eradicating grade inflation would allow students and faculty members to collaborate in developing long-term habits of exercising intellectual rigor to better the chances of student performance. Such positive possibilities would turn students into critically thinking adults that can help solve societal problems. Eventually, the country would stop corporate ineffectiveness as well as business practices that lack meaning over subsequent environments and generations. For instance, College life should prove hard for every student that wishes to earn a degree. Their level of education should be superior to that offered in high school. Thus, both the society and government would appreciate the value of educational systems given the student’s quest for high grades. Such grades are indicators of true learning and not mere terminals of coursework completeness
There is a need to maintain education rigorous and students to the best level possible. Students need to treat their institutions and studies with seriousness. There should be policies, expectations, and standards which help to improve the quality of education offered. These are not the characteristics of a bad institution, rather one that pushes students from their comfort zones and into success.
