Ancillary Assignment #5: The Implications of Grade Inflation in Americas Learning Institutions

Name
Instructor
Subject
Date
The Implications of Grade Inflation in Americas Learning Institutions
Grading in schools, colleges and universities provides an effective way for measuring student achievement. Education is a goal-oriented process, which requires educators to assess learners' progress from time to time to determine whether the institution is achieving its educational goals. Towards this end, class assignments, continuous assessment tests (CATS), and end-term/semester examinations serve as tools for evaluating learners' achievement. However, it appears that the grading system is flawed and does not provide a realistic picture of learners' achievement levels. This observation follows results from international test scores comparing the competencies of students from different parts of the world. In these tests, American students perform poorly, especially in the sciences, compared to their counterparts from Europe and Asia, despite scoring A and B grades in their home (American) colleges and schools (Noguch 2013). This situation suggests two possibilities; either the grading system is exaggerated by awarding higher grades than the learners deserve, or the current letter grading system is not an appropriate measure of student achievement. Barron's Educational Series Inc., an American company that publishes educational materials to help students prepare for college entrance examinations, reports that many colleges do not administer standard tests, while in some the tests are optional (Barron's Educational Series 1). This trend is the first hint that the grading system in America's tertiary education is flexible, and is not always based on learners' actual competence. What implications does this trend have on the quality of education, employers, and the success of graduates in the job market?
This issue is of paramount relevance to teachers, educational policy makers, students, employers, and other stakeholders in the education sector. Teachers have the responsibility of ensuring that the grade assigned to a student is a true reflection of his or her actual competence. Students should be concerned that there is a direct correlation between the grades they score and the quality of education they receive. This will enable them to compete favorably with learners from other countries in the job market. This is especially true in higher education, which seeks to produce graduates who can function effectively in a global environment. As regulators of formal education, policy makers have the responsibility of ensuring that high standards in the quality of education are maintained throughout the education system. The revelations by a Harvard professor that grades A's and B's are given readily in one of America's most prestigious institutions of higher learning implies a serious flaw in the quality of education (Slavov 2013; Goodwin 80). Finally...