The "Everyone Gets A Trophy" philosophy is destroying education in America. A new report by
USA Today provides
yet more evidence that our schools are failing to equip our students,
presenting two statistics that highlight both the root and result of
this failure.
In what one researcher described as a "stunning"
finding, a recent analysis of the grades of America's Class of 2016
found that nearly
half of seniors graduated with "A" averages. A
total of 47% of seniors' grade averages were either an A, A-minus, or
A-plus. That is a nearly 10% increase in about two decades. In 1998,
38.9% of graduating senior's had A averages.
While nearly half of
the Class of 2016 graduated with A averages, another 43.7% graduated
with B's (down from 47.9% in '89). Thus, 91% of high school graduates
in 2016 had either an A or B average. Only 8.9% graduated with a C
average (down from 12.7% in '98).
So does the higher percentage of A's and B's really mean that students are mastering the subject matter at a higher rate? No. As
USA Today stresses, while A's are on the rise, the average SAT score has fallen "from 1,026 to 1,002 on a 1,600-point scale."
The
numbers come from a study by two researchers, the College Board's
Michael Hurwitz and University of Georgia Institute of Higher Education
doctoral student Jason Lee. Hurwitz, who described the 47% result as
"stunning," said that A's are now simply the "modal high school grade."
Federal statistics also found that graduation rates are up to
over 83%; however, college students continue to show signs of being ill-equipped, including
delayed completion rates.
When in college, students are likewise enjoying grade inflation, as GradeInflation.com's Stuart Rojstaczer explained to
USA Today:
According
to Rojstaczer, close to 50% of all college grades given are A’s, a far
cry from even two decades ago, when the average GPA at a four-year
college was 3.11.
He recently told USA TODAY that A’s are now three times more common than they were in 1960.
Rojstaczer tied
college grade inflation to the Vietnam War, saying that in the 1960's
instructors began to be more generous with grades in order to protect
students from conscription.
Read the full analysis here.