Grade Inflation: The Lake Woebegon Syndrome « The Car Family

Grade Inflation: The Lake Woebegon Syndrome « The Car Family:

"I must be living in Lake Wobegon, that mythical Minnesota town that my fellow Anokaian Garrison Keillor created where all the children are above average. The reason is simple, in classrooms throughout the country the D and F grade are fast disappearing in favor of those that traditional were given to superior students. That could only mean we are living in Keillor’s fantasy village. Unfortunately, this isn’t a fantasy and it didn’t happen a long time ago. The demise of the D and F grade came rather quickly. It was the outgrowth of a society empowered by the government’s legislation that no child is going to be left behind and the general hush of educators who know darn well that they better go along or suffer the wrath of sanctions. The result was that non-performing students, advocates for the importance of self-esteem, and parents desperately wanting to assure others that their child was on the honor roll bullied their way to higher grades using which ever tactic worked.

After this quixotic change the A became a grade for those students achieving above the accepted standards at a school regardless of the State standardized test scores. A B mark was the grade provided for those students who did the work and the C was a gentleman’s way of saying your work was done,"