Public Forum Letter

In education circles, there is an ongoing debate over the dangers of grade inflation. This debate is somewhat misdirected and misses an important part of the core issue -- student learning.

During the past 50 years, significant strides have been made in research on effective teaching and adult learning. As a result, there has been a fundamental pedagogical shift away from the traditional "teaching content" educational model of lecture and student regurgitation to a "facilitate discovery" model of engaged, student-centered learning. In the new model, research has consistently shown that forced grade distribution (a "reward for performance" system) can actually de-incentivize a student's intrinsic motivation for learning and foster unhealthy levels of classroom competition (such as gamesmanship and manipulation for the grade) that squashes healthy collaborative learning activities that are more long-lasting and meaningful.

There is no question that educators need to hold students to the highest standards when developing learning objectives and assessing student performance.