Grade inflation

Grade inflation

Grade inflation (also known as grading leniency) is the awarding of higher <a href="/en/Grading_in_education" title="Grading in education" class="wl">grades</a> than students deserve, which yields a higher average grade given to students.<a href="#cite_note-Arenson_2004-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;">[1]</a>

<div class="shortdescription nomobile noexcerpt noprint searchaux" style="display:none" about="#mwt1">Awarding higher grades than deserved</div>
The term is also used to describe the tendency to award progressively higher academic grades for work that would have received lower grades in the past. However, higher average grades in themselves do not prove grade inflation. For this to be grade inflation, it is necessary to demonstrate that the quality of work does not deserve the high grade.<a href="#cite_note-Arenson_2004-1" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 1;">[1]</a>

Grade inflation is frequently discussed in relation to <a href="/en/Education_in_the_United_States" title="Education in the United States" class="wl">education in the United States</a>, and to <a href="/en/GCSEs" title="GCSEs" class="mw-redirect wl">GCSEs</a> and <a href="/en/Advanced_Level_(UK)" title="Advanced Level (UK)" class="mw-redirect wl">A levels</a> in <a href="/en/England_and_Wales" title="England and Wales" class="wl">England and Wales</a>. It is also an issue in many other nations, such as <a href="/en/Canada" title="Canada" class="wl">Canada</a>, <a href="/en/Australia" title="Australia" class="wl">Australia</a>, <a href="/en/New_Zealand" title="New Zealand" class="wl">New Zealand</a>, <a href="/en/France" title="France" class="wl">France</a>, <a href="/en/Germany" title="Germany" class="wl">Germany</a>, <a href="/en/South_Korea" title="South Korea" class="wl">South Korea</a>, <a href="/en/Japan" title="Japan" class="wl">Japan</a>, <a href="/en/China" title="China" class="wl">China</a> and <a href="/en/India" title="India" class="wl">India</a>.<a href="#cite_note-2" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 2;">[2]</a><a href="#cite_note-3" style="counter-reset: mw-Ref 3;">[3]</a>

Grade inflation is the awarding of higher grades than students deserve, which yields a higher average grade given to students. The term is also used to describe the tendency to award progressively higher academic grades for work that would have received lower grades in the past. However, higher average grades in themselves do not prove grade inflation. For this to be grade inflation, it is necessary to demonstrate that the quality of work does not deserve the high grade. Grade inflation is frequently discussed in relation to education in the United States, and to GCSEs and A levels in England and Wales. It is also an issue in many other nations, such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, South Korea, Japan, China and India. 