Grade inflation tells dangerous lies to students, write Steven Birnholz and Eric Frey, both of the Florida Council of 100, on Fordham’s site. Students who see B’s and C’s on their report card think they’re prepared for college and career training. Often, they’re not.
Research in North Carolina are Florida shows a huge “rigor gap” between teachers’ grades and states’ end-of-course (EOC) exams.
Looking at Florida Algebra I and tenth grade English students from 2015–18, we found that 55 percent of students who did not pass the Algebra I EOC, and 72 percent of English students who did not pass the EOC, received a “C” or higher in the course. Further, more than a third of students who did not pass the EOC for tenth grade English received a “B” or higher in the course.
When students expect teachers to give high grades, they “study 50 percent less”, earlier research has shown. They learn less. They make college and career decisions based on incomplete or inaccurate information.
In response to the pandemic, many schools have eased grading policies or switched to pass/fail, Birnholz and Frey write. In the spring semester, students had no incentive to work harder to raise a C to a B or a B to an A. Most end-of-year tests were canceled, including federally required tests. If tests are waived for a second year, as some educators propose, “students could be halfway through high school without an honest answer to how prepared they are for their desired future,” they write.
Birnholz and Frey propose making it easier and faster to compare students’ grades with their EOC scores. Once aware of the “educational damage caused by the rigor gap, many teachers will naturally adjust their grading practices to better ensure that students are mastering state standards throughout the year” and preparing to pass end-of-year exams, they hope.
Will they change their teaching and grading? Or will they call for the exams to be abolished?