Grade hyperinflation is a phenomenon that poses a threat to the value and quality of educational achievement among students not only in basic education but also became prevalent among higher learning institutions.
This raises major concerns on what truly accounts in the present context of highly competitive and marketized education. Most academic institutions in the country, especially those of higher learning, are suffering from poor output of learners in terms of skills and practical demonstrations of content and knowledge which are critical in life-transformative education.
The value of basic education achievement is no longer a reliable source to describe quality graduates. In the working paper series by Denning, Eide, Mumford, Patterson, and Warnick (2021) on the analysis of rising grades and completion rates in college, they have found out the provocative patterns of increase in grade point average (GPA) was not caused by improved college preparation nor changes in student learning. Instead, time spent studying and labor force participation in college suggest that GPAs have been rising due to relaxed standards.
However, grade hyperinflation in basic education remained unexplored and left hanging on the institutional level, characterized by the concerned agency’s extreme bureaucratic procedure in the grading system. The state is deemed to follow its fundamental principle or else the appropriation for its operation might be compromised as it has been influenced by highly marketized concept of the profit-driven capitalist pressure groups.
It is pivotal for educators to understand the nature of assessment and testing culture. The performative concept became the determining factor why teachers may give less challenging test because they are accountable for students’ achievement, and each outcome is a reflection of teachers’ performance. However, giving challenging tests and exams does not necessarily mean teachers are ineffective if students do not fare enough with their scores. Professor Inez Ponce de Leon once noted, “keeping students free from difficulty is perpetuating mediocrity in the disguise of care,” (“Like Real Angels, 12/20/23).
On the other grounds, the dominant policy discourse over the last two decades in education has been on performance accountability via high-stakes testing. In order to realize the performance pressure, set by the authority in the department, schools shifted its resources and emphasis toward standardization and achievement tests to be at par with the governing standards of the state influenced by neoliberal pressure groups.
Educational standards became relaxed as described by Denning, Eide, Mumford, Patterson, and Warnick (2021), which resulted in the rising grades of students over time and accounts for much of the increase in completion rate in basic education, and increase in basic and college completion rates.
The issue has been shifted from quality to quantity. The education system has shifted its resources and emphasis from students’ needs to students’ performance toward schools’ marketing and public relations. Teachers are unable to know how to explore and consider students’ backgrounds and prior knowledge when deciding and designing a suitable curriculum. This left us with a normative ethical question: In the age of performativity in the education context, is grading standard failing and falling?
CHRISTIAN F. BASCO,
teacher,
Ramon A. Benjamin Sr. National High School