Issues@Hand

AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs

June 2019 – According to the nation’s four-year colleges (elite and ivy league included), today’s college students are soaked in “superior” intelligence and performance. The proof is in the numbers, right? Grade point averages have, indeed, catapulted in recent decades. And no one on campus seems willing to address or correct the obvious fallacy.

In a March 18 column, Boston Globe writer Jeff Jacoby cited numerous studies from recent years to uncover some startling stats, among them:

• In 2012, 62% of Yale student grades were in the A range, contrasted with 10% in 1963.
• In 2009, 41% of four-year college students had A- or higher grade averages, contrasted with 7% in 1969.
• A 2013 report found that 91% of Harvard seniors were graduating with honors, and 48.5% of their grades were As.

Jacoby said grade inflation on college campuses has been rampant since the mid 1990s. He wrote, “Every few years, the joke that grade inflation has made of brand-name colleges gets a new bout of attention. But it never leads to meaningful reform.”

bostonglobe.com, 3/18/19