Worrying About Inflation Wednesday, October 06, 2021
No, not inflation of prices. Of high school GPAs. Los Angeles Magazine has a lengthy article this month entitled: Elite Prep Schools in L.A. and Across the U.S. Are Brazenly Inflating Grades.* It provides examples of high school grade inflation at high-priced schools resulting from parental pressure to have their kids' GPAs look good to admissions officers at top universities. Parents exert pressure directly on teachers and through school administrators. After examples of grade inflation, the article notes: ... Because of the pandemic, colleges have waived standardized testing requirements following a movement that has grown in recent years. It’s natural to think that some of these schools might abandon testing requirements for good. That’s what happened at the University of California, which in May became the largest university system in the country to phase them out.
This means that college-admissions officers will need to trust grades more than ever. “When you go test optional, you rely much more heavily on those grades,” says (Tom) Green, (associate executive director) of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. “Lump on top of that a whole bunch of scattered information on grading, and it just became the Wild West for admissions offices for this fall.” With the new grading policies, he says, “just mathematically, it has to contribute to grade inflation.” ... In short, we may have moved out of the SAT/ACT frying pan and into the GPA fire. You can argue about whether GPAs better predict college performance than the SAT/ACT. But when you take away the standardized tests, you inherently raise the importance of the GPA as the remaining statistical indicator. Students and parents react. And, unlike price inflation, grade inflation has a ceiling. If everyone gets an A, there is no predictive value in the GPA. Note also that the complaint about the SAT/ACT that (costly) test prep services give an advantage to higher income applicants now seems to be playing out with regard to the GPA. Another quote from the article:
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UCLA Faculty Association Blog: 4th Quarter 2021