Grade inflation must go there is no substitute for hard work

Report cards for California’s students reveal a major crisis in education.Not because the grades are too low.Rather, because they are too high.Grade inflation is rampant in the Golden State, where the number of students receiving straight A’s is going up, even as reading and math test scores are plunging.The number of applicants to University of California schools with perfect 4.0 GPAs has doubled.Meanwhile, on campus, professors complain that students can’t handle basic skills.

One UC Berkeley professor recently said that she had to teach fractions — a fifth-grade skill — to students at California’s top public university.Grade inflation used to be a problem that only elite colleges faced.It began in the Vietnam War era, when professors understood that giving poor grades to students could see them leave school and enter the military draft.Grade inflation persisted, for economic reasons.Students — or their parents — were paying higher tuition bills, and demanded a return on their investment, meaning admission to graduate schools.No professor wanted to be blamed by angry parents if young Johnny couldn’t get into to medical school.A report by Harvard found that while 24% of grades were A’s in 2005, that had risen to 40% in 2015, and 60% by 2025.At UC Berkeley, the rise was more modest: A’s were 50% of all grades in 2013, and 64% by 2022.But grade inflation began to trickle down to high schools in California.Unlike Harvard, the University of California schools do not use standardized tests in admissions.  The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.

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