That beautiful, prized “A” displayed proudly on a test is one of the best sights for many students. It shows hard work and dedication spent—but does it really? As students ourselves, the feeling of achieving a good grade is sweeter when we thought we absolutely failed a test. However, that feeling might be unwarranted and is an active threat to our future academic success. Grade inflation, or the practice of giving a higher grade than the work deserves, is a growing concern nationwide—whether in high schools or higher levels of education. 

The past decade has witnessed an unprecedented improvement in the average high schooler’s GPA. From 1998 to 2016, the average high school GPA rose from 3.27 to 3.38. Sounds amazing, right? But, average SAT scores fell from 1026 to 1002 (The New York Times). Comparing scores nationwide reveals the real disparity in learning gaps. This discrepancy demonstrates the increasing trend of kids taking easier courses to preserve a high GPA while simultaneously failing to learn the basic skills necessary for standardized tests. True comprehension is the same as it was years ago, if not lower. 

But, if everyone gets an A, what’s the harm in that? Surely, it must mean that the general public is learning more and is smarter. If 42% of college students across the country are graduating with an A average (CBS), then this generation of students must be more intelligent than previous ones. Students must be doing something right to earn these great grades.

However, this way of thinking only worsens the problem. The issue is not that the past ten years have given birth to naturally smarter kids. Simply put, school is just getting easier and easier. Standard curriculums are not challenging students at the same rate, leading to higher scores in class but lower comprehension. Learning standards are actually decreasing—resulting from a variety of factors, like the No Child Left Behind policy and COVID. These falling standards are directly causing a decrease in learning and student ability. 

Not only are classes becoming easier, but practices like curving also lead to high amounts of grade inflation. Of course, curving grades in cases of poor instruction or general failure is necessary. However, the overuse of curving has slowly evolved into a common way for students to escape from a bad grade. This isn’t only harmful for those students whose grades were raised. It’s harmful to students who truly do understand the material. Students with already high grades, which they earned through legitimate comprehension, will now be the same grade as someone who never fully understood the concepts. Is this really fair?

Additionally, the practice of curving isn’t always applied correctly. What we commonly refer to as “curving” just means raising the average score of all students. True curving means that scores are distributed across a normal distribution, benefiting some scores and harming others. Students don’t want curving to lower their scores, and rightfully so. There’s no reason for you to suffer a lower score just because others performed better or worse than you. But with that reasoning, it should go both ways. There’s no reason for you to obtain a better score just because others performed better or worse than you. 

The allowance of test corrections and test retakes causes grade inflation, too. Instead of deeply understanding material in anticipation of a permanent test grade, students can fail to study sufficiently. After all, if students get a bad score, they can just correct their test to earn lost points back. The student who worked hard and earned an A without corrections suddenly has the same score as a student who put little effort in and corrected to an A. How can we differentiate between these two students? Grades aren’t telling the full story anymore. 

Despite the issues grade inflation causes, school districts and higher education institutions are not always incentivised to fix it. Even though their students are understanding less material, having a high average GPA improves the look of the school, especially when compared to a school with a lower average. The prestige and praise that comes with being a ‘good school’ is too good to pass up in most cases, even if it comes at the expense of its students. Students chase high grades to display on their transcript, and might be more likely to enroll in a school that easily gives up these grades if they have the choice. The coveted “A” doesn’t mean much anymore.  

Furthermore, schools are often incentivized to lean into practices that lead to higher amounts of grade inflation. Holding a high bar means that more kids will end up failing. Retaining those students, putting them in summer school, or making them retake a class is not only unpopular, but also extremely expensive and resource-draining. This leads to many schools turning a blind eye to practices that promote grade inflation. School administrators don’t want parents sending angry emails and demanding an explanation. It’s just easier to pass kids than fail them.

Now, how can we address this problem? Naturally, one way is to increase the difficulty in standard curriculums nationwide. However, this also leads to a host of issues. Standardizing curriculums nationwide is difficult and can lead to decreased motivation in students. Once school becomes too hard, it becomes less of a matter of learning and instead becomes a matter of completion. Work ethics have already decreased from practices of grade inflation. Returning to the normal of a difficult curriculum would be hard to implement.

Additionally, unless all schools around the country collectively decide to address grade inflation, students from schools with less grade inflation will be at a disadvantage. There is no way for possible colleges or employers to know if a low GPA is because the courses are more difficult, or if the student just isn’t as qualified as another candidate with a higher GPA. 

Although the issue is daunting, grade inflation doesn’t mean a complete collapse of the education system just yet. Revision of current standards and curriculums can still be made. Even if it isn’t rewarded right away, the value of education isn’t completely lost, whether your grades are inflated or not. Having a generally less-educated public due to grade inflation is an issue, but not giving up on education is the only way to eventually come to a solution. Students need to learn to accept lower grades for their work. It’ll teach them to have a stronger work ethic and encourage a deeper understanding of difficult concepts. That wonderful “A+” might feel better when it represents the true value of your work.