The Smartest Bunch of all

Our newest batch of Einsteins to graduate from whatever Institute of scholarship they attended were ejected with report cards containing all “A” grades. We are stunned! For after listening to them speak, hearing the level of grammar used and the extent of their vocabulary, one has to believe English and language skills were not part of the grading process. So what was subjected to course evaluation?

A’s on the rise in U.S. report cards, but SAT scores founder

The good news on America’s report cards: More high school teachers are handing out A’s. But the bad news is that students aren’t necessarily learning more.

Recent findings show that the proportion of high school seniors graduating with an A average — that includes an A-minus or A-plus — has grown sharply over the past generation, even as average SAT scores have fallen.

In 1998, it was 38.9%. By last year, it had grown to 47%.

That’s right: Nearly half of America’s Class of 2016 are A students. Meanwhile, their average SAT score fell from 1,026 to 1,002 on a 1,600-point scale — suggesting that those A’s on report cards might be fool’s gold. [snip]

But that’s not always translating into more college diplomas. A recent study by the Harvard Graduate School of Education found that just 56% of college students complete a four-year degree within six years of entering college. For students who start at two-year colleges, it’s even worse: Just 29% earn a degree within three years.

Examining the academic transcripts of high school graduates in the 18-year period from 1998 to 2016, they found that the average grade point average (GPA) rose from 3.27 to 3.38, even as the average SAT score dropped.

Actually, they said, the upward creep is most pronounced in schools with large numbers of white, wealthy students. And its especially noticeable in private schools, where the rate of inflation was about three times higher than in public schools.

Hurwitz said an A is now “the modal high school grade,” a solid sign of grade inflation.

He said one of the goals of the research is to “make sure that college admissions professionals are equipped to make the best decisions possible.”

But he said high schools are increasingly moving away from class ranking, a traditional metric that helps colleges figure out which students are really achieving above their peers.

Lee said previous research has tied high school GPA to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, a widely respected standardized test administered by the federal government. But the new research is the first to draw such a direct line between GPA and SAT scores. [snip]

He recently told USA TODAY that A’s are now three times more common than they were in 1960.

Rojstaczer has said grade inflation became more prevalent during the Vietnam War era, when professors began awarding higher grades to prevent students from being deployed, since students who dropped out of college were drafted into the military.