US colleges are taking a reputational hit
Image: Minding the Campus
Americans’ views on the value of a college education have been on the decline for years, with many citing the rising costs to attend as a main driver.
But a pair of recent reports have drawn attention to another major academic issue present at schools across the country: grade inflation.
It starts at the high school level
The number of freshmen entering the University of California San Diego with math skills below a high-school level has increased nearly 30x over the past five years, per a new report from school officials.
- The report found ~13% of the incoming 2025 class at UCSD fit this category, up from 0.5% in 2020.
- Additionally, more than 70% of students in this group—or 1 in 12 entering freshmen—have math skills below middle-school levels, meaning they might struggle with questions like “7+2=6+__?” or rounding 374,518 to the nearest hundred.
- Similar issues with math skills for a small portion of incoming students were also identified at other UC campuses, including Cal Berkeley and UCLA.
Analysts say the report likely indicates a widespread systemic issue of grade inflation in high school courses, with part of the blame being assigned to the Covid pandemic and subsequent classroom disruptions.
The issue is also present at top colleges
The UCSD report came weeks after Harvard University published an internal report warning of “damaging” grade inflation across the school’s classes in recent decades.
- Harvard officials found more than 60% of all grades awarded to the school’s undergrads are A’s, compared to just ~25% of grades two decades ago.
- The median GPA among undergrads is now 3.83, up from 3.5 in the early 2000s and 3.25 in 1985.
Zoom out: Nearly two-thirds of registered US voters (63%) say a four-year college degree isn’t worth the cost, according to an NBC News poll published last week. That’s up from 47% who said it wasn’t worth it in 2017, and 40% in 2013.
📊 Flash poll: How would you best describe the issue of grade inflation at US high schools and colleges?
See a 360° view of what pundits are saying →
Sprinkles from the Left
- Some commentators argue that addressing the problem of grade inflation will require major changes, including ensuring grading functions as a true indicator of mastery, reconfiguring assignments to center learning over volume, and destroying perverse incentive loops.
- Others contend that one potential solution to grade inflation is to replace letter grades entirely in college, as humans learned perfectly well without them throughout most of civilization.
- “We Hate to Admit It, But Dean Claybaugh is Right” –Harvard Crimson Editorial Board
- “Why not get rid of grades?” –Daniel Pink, WaPo
- “Harvard inflates grades, deflates reputation” –Daily Reflector Editorial Board
Sprinkles from the Right
- Some commentators argue that by tolerating grade inflation, Harvard and its peers are misleading students about what excellence really entails, and denying young people the elite education they have promised to deliver.
- Others contend that much of the blame for grade inflation lies with teachers unions and their rabid opposition to mandatory standardized testing, which allows teachers to let students’ grades balloon and make it seem like everything was going swimmingly, when it wasn’t.
- “Harvard Isn’t Ready to Stop Inflating Grades” –Neetu Arnold, Manhattan Institute
- “College kids’ math skills worse than ever, California finds — blame our pass-the-buck public schools” –Karol Markowicz, NY Post
- “How Do You Spell ‘Harvard’? With an Endless Supply of A’s” –Jason L. Riley, WSJ
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