Prep ≠ Prep In independent schools today, grade inflation is more prevalent than ever. So, how well are “college preparatory” high schools actually preparing students for higher education? WORDS and ART by HANNA MASRI and DARE FITZPATRICK
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hink about your grades right now. How much of your grade in a given class is representative of mastery of material? In the education system today, much of our composite grade in each class comes from completion and participation points, rather than formative assessments. An A doesn’t necessarily translate to mastery of 90% or more of the material; rather, it could be representative of extra credit and homework completion. Opinions on what a grade should represent vary, which is part of the reason why there are differences between the grading systems of teachers and classes. “When you look at schools in general—public, private, parochial— the administration has so much authority over almost everything that occurs in a school, and the reason grading tends to be the perennial sore-spot of a school is because that tends to be a place where there is teacher autonomy,” said Head of Upper School Melissa Alkire. “Teachers have to hit certain benchmarks in every other part of their practice, that grading tends to be universally a place of autonomy— that doesn’t necessarily mean there should be or shouldn’t be but that’s why there is a lot of dialogue about it.” However, these disparities in earning grades can result in grade inflation, a problem which is com-
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mon in independent schools today. According to an Education Week article by Catherine Gewertz, grade inflation is more common in independent schools compared to private religious schools, suburban public schools, and urban public schools.
“We’re not graduating biologists from here. We’re not graduating doctors. We’re graduating students, and part of being a student is having some space for mistakes and not having mistakes be something that crucifies you.” - Melissa Alkire The motivation for the inflation can be, in part, attributed to anxious parents who expect high grades from their children in order to be accepted to selective colleges. This inaccurate reflection of achievement can ultimately leave students unprepared for the material they will experience in college. Grade inflation is a phenomenon in which students receive grades which are unrepresentative and
usually skewed higher. A telltale sign of grade inflation is when a school has an average GPA of 3.0 or higher, translating to an average grade of a B or higher on a 4.0 scale. Independent schools are notorious, since the 90s, for allowing grade inflation to persist. According to Gewertz, because of the exponential rise in college tuition in the United States, beginning in the 1990s, the price of independent high schools rose in direct response to this rise. This is reflected by the increases in GPA over the past 30 years. Gewertz cites a College Board study by Michael Hurwitz and Jason Lee from University of Georgia who found that from 1998 to 2016 independent schools saw a higher rate of GPA increase than public schools with an 8% vs. a 0.6% increase, respectively. Although this drastic jump in average GPAs could be, in part, due to different education systems, the large gap between the two suggest a confounding factor that is driving up GPAs in independent schools: grade inflation. Laguna is no exception in terms of grade inflation. Classes have different policies for grades as the grading system is not strictly regulated. “Currently there is not, at this school, a mandate that grades be made up of particular kinds of systems or protocols,” Alkire said. thefourthestate.net
