Saturday, May 01, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

EDITORIAL: Passing out the A's and B's

GPAs go up, but test scores don't

The federal government reported this week that high school grade-point averages have been going up, reaching an average of 2.94 (out of 4.00) for seniors in the year 2000.

That's up from 2.68 a decade earlier.

"My experience tells me that the increase in GPA is probably a reflection of what our students know and are able to do," the principal of an upper-scale Maryland high school told The Associated Press.

Perhaps. Certainly our elite students can compete anywhere in the world. And the Department of Education also reports that more students are taking higher level math and science courses.

But here's another obvious explanation for the improved marks: grade inflation.

If indeed, the higher grades were evidence of improved achievement, wouldn't standardized test scores also be increasing? They aren't.

Reading scores have stayed flat throughout the 1990s, The AP reports. So have math and science scores. Another federal test measuring seniors in 2000 showed declining math and science results. SAT and ACT scores have inched forward slightly, but not nearly as much as the GPA figures might project.

Here in Southern Nevada, we have our own evidence of grade inflation. A significant number of high school seniors who earned Millennium Scholarships -- which require a 3.0 GPA -- also found themselves placed in remedial English and math courses once they hit UNLV.

What does that tell us about what's happening to the value of the GPA?