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

Name
Instructor
Subject
Date
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.
Carnoy, Martin, and Rothstein, Richard. What Do International Tests Really Show about
U.S. Student Performance? H Street NW, Washington: Economic Policy Institute. 2014. Print.
The authors of this article present a conflicting view regarding the poor performance of American learners in test scores. They observe that conclusions “drawn from international test comparisons” are misleading because they do not reflect the American learning environment and grading system, and “may lead policymakers to pursue inappropriate and harmful reforms” (Carnoy and Rothstein 6). Their argument suggests that there is no connection between grade inflation and poor performance of American learners in international test scores. The authors' position provides a necessary critique for the p...