With GPAs increasing, administrators should discuss grading standards: editorial

In the wake of rising GPAs, postsecondary school administrators will need to have a serious discussion about grading standards, write Jeff Denning, Eric Eide, Kevin Mumford, Rich Patterson, and Merrill Warnick. The authors write that while grade inflation increases the number of students who graduate by reducing their academic anxiety, it can also cause more students to graduate without learning job-relevant information. They conclude that administrators should endeavor to balance “the learning-incentive effects of lower grades with the graduation-increasing effects of higher grades.”