There’s the good news, and well, there’s always the bad news.
The good news: Grades at American colleges and universities are, with one exception, improving dramatically. For a myriad of possible reasons and without particular regard to any of them, as students, we rejoice.
The bad news: We’re not better students than our parents, nor are we becoming substantially brighter. All of a sudden, that myriad of reasons has been cropped down to the ones that aren’t half as savory.
By mutual exclusivity, the good and bad news in conjunction yield the fact of the matter.
The fact of the matter: Grades are supposed to be a reliable indicator of intellectual performance and work ethic. Grades that are going up for no good reason only serve as a worse indicator. They mean less to graduate schools, they mean less to employers; they serve only to confound good, mediocre, and poor students. Present value in a once-coveted ‘A’ is becoming primarily symbolic.
The only equivalently symbolic and shameful ‘A’. Source: badrap-blog.blogspot.com
This research hypertext concerns itself primarily with this fission-esque trend — that is to say, one that proliferates without assistance — and the devaluation of America’s darling four-year degree, the professional cover charge. And it’s not just students who should be concerned as tomorrow’s employees and graduate students; instructors, for the integrity and continued prosperity of their disciplines, ought to challenge grade inflation too. After all, the consequences of inaction could be dire — including reduced civic functionality, a less competitive workforce, and potentially even physically dangerous eventualities.
Welcome to my tactical hypertext.
Background image source: byuicomm.net