Harvard Study Highlights Widespread Grade Inflation

A study group at Harvard recently released a 25-page report detailing the grade inflation happening within the university. The ongoing inflation of grades at universities across the country has spurred debate about the future of student success.

The Details: According to the report, over 60% of grades given to Harvard undergraduates were A's–up from 25% two decades ago. Between 2022-23, Yale University had awarded their students A's 78.9% of the time, while average grade point averages (GPAs) rose from 3.64 to 3.74. In September, the Director of Higher Education at the America First Policy Institute wrote that four-year college GPAs rose more than 16% at public and non-profit universities between 1990-2020. Several reports in recent years show that grade inflation began to rapidly increase in the late 2010s and spiked during the COVID-19 pandemic, including in high schools.

End of Meritocracy: An opinion for the National Review Opinion (Right bias) argued grade inflation has created an "everyone is special" ethos which has "swallowed meritocracy whole" and is leading to an "idiocracy-style future." The writer said grade inflation hasn't prepared students for the workplace, instead creating "a sense of entitlement in young people…leading them to think they can bully their bosses into raises and promotions." The piece went on to argue grade inflation results less from student or parent complaints about low grades, and more from professor response to that pressure. It offered a potential solution of implementing additional testing through universities or businesses to ensure students are meeting education standards.

Shifts in College: In an interview with NPR (Lean Left), Washington University professor Ian Bogost noted several possible reasons for increasing grades, including "students have gotten a lot better", the coursework has changed, nontenured faculty are incentivized to give higher grades, and the cost of college has "turned students more into customers." Bogost argued that faculty has responded to students spending "a hundred thousand dollars" on education by wanting to help them "get something back." An opinion in Deseret (Center) argued grade inflation may be even more damaging at non-elite schools, where many underprepared students are moved through courses despite not mastering the material. It cited an instructor who said this creates a system where no one wants to expose the truth about student readiness.

Unexpected Benefits: An opinion in Inside Higher Ed (Lean Left) argued abandoning traditional grading in favor of reflective self-assessment leads to more equitable, creative, trusting, and meaningful learning. It said that despite challenges, "ungrading" is a more compassionate and effective pedagogical approach. 

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