Inflation of the Grading System in American Learning Institutions Compared to European Institutions

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Inflation of the Grading System in American Learning Institutions Compared to European Institutions
Grade inflation, the tendency for a learning institution to award more A and B grades than C’s and D’s has become an issue of great concern in the U.S. education system. Study reports indicate that the grading in American institutions is greatly inflated. Critics of this trend argue that inflation is harmful to the education system because:
It makes superior performance to lose value and become less desirable
It creates ambiguity between average and high achievers because it is difficult to differentiate the two given the high number of A and B grades.
It creates complications across major learning institutions in the ranking of students’ performance.
In view of these concerns, and other studies indicating that U.S. students perform poorly in test scores compared to their Asian and European counterparts, it is clear that the American education system is losing in terms of quality. This suggests the need to implement educational reforms to make American education more valuable both domestically and internationally. This paper provides an annotated bibliography of previous studies and published articles that address this issue.
Barron’s Educational Series, Inc.Profiles of American Colleges 2013. New York:
Barrons Educational Series, Inc. 2014.Print.
This article provides a list of American colleges that do not administer standard tests before admitting students. It labels such colleges “test optional” or “test flexible” because they do not emphasize the use of standard tests before accepting high school graduates seeking college admission (Barron’s Educational Series 1). The author suggest that the failure to use SAT and ACT tests when admitting high school graduates is the first sign of the flexible grading system that will be applied when they finish college, hence the high number of A and B grades that do not necessarily reflect the college graduates’ true competencies.
Doyle, Lesley, Houston, Muir, and Osborne, Mike. Grading: A Review of National and
International Issues. University of Stirling, Scotland: PASCAL International Observatory and Institute of Education, 2007. Print.
This source critically evaluates the accuracy of using a linear number or letter to describe learners’ non-linear skills and abilities. The letter grading system poses a problem when interpreting the assigned score to determine a learner’s competence. For instance, awarding an A means that the student is exceptional and has mastered all the content of the subject or course in question. However, this assumption ignores the fact that exams or tests do not test everything. Although this source does not tackle the issue of grade inflation directly, it provides a good perspective for understanding the extent of damage caused b...