Florida’s high school graduation rate climbed to an all-time high of 88 percent in the 2022–2023 school year, during a period that some educators fear is rampant grade inflation.
The Florida Department of Education (FLDOE) tracked a 1.1 percent increase from the previous recording-breaking year in 2018–2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic, when graduating classes were exempt from certain statewide standardized testing requirements.
Almost all student subgroups saw an increase in their graduation rates over the past five years.
Graduation rates for students with disabilities increased by 4.9 percent, while “economically disadvantaged” students’ rates increased by 0.9 percent.
African American students increased their graduation rates by 1.7 percent since the 2018–2019 school year.
“Florida’s graduation rate continues to climb because our educators place a sole focus on academics in the classroom,” Governor Ron DeSantis said in a news release.
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“Whether Florida students choose a four-year university or non-traditional post-secondary learning, they will have built a strong foundation to set them up for success.”
Florida Commissioner of Education Manny Diaz, Jr. said in a news release that it’s the “culmination of many years of dedicated learning, and an accomplishment that prepares students for good jobs, for college admissions, and for a better all-around future.”
The education department also touted a 7.2 percent increase in graduation rates for American Indian or Alaska Native students during the same period, rising from 77.5 percent in 2018-2019 to 84.7 percent in 2022–2023.
The department said it was the highest five-year increase of any student subgroup.
Hispanic students’ high school graduation rates also rose to 86.8 percent in 2022–2023 compared to 85.9 percent in 2018–2019.
Danger of Grade Inflation
Despite these increases, some educators are sounding the alarm bells on what they call rampant grade inflation.Harvard released a report on Oct. 5, 2023, that detailed a 19 percent increase in A-grades over a decade.
During the 2020–2021 school year, 79 percent of all grades given to students were As, compared to 60 percent 10 years earlier.
The percentage of A-grades differed depending on the college division.
Harvard’s Arts and Humanities division had 73 percent A-grades in 2020–2021 compared to just 30 percent during the 2002-2003 school year.
The Sciences and Social Sciences departments both had 65 percent of A-grades in 2020–2021 compared to 25 percent and 21 percent, respectively, in 2002–2003.
A view of the campus of Harvard University on July 8, 2020, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Maddie Meyer/Getty Images
The number of A-grades for the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences was 60 percent during the 2020–2021 school year compared to only 24 percent in 2002–2003.
The report was discussed at a Faculty of Arts and Sciences meeting on Oct. 3, 2023, where the Dean of Undergraduate Education Amanda Claybaugh said the report “establishes we have a problem—or rather, we have two: the intertwined problems of grade inflation and compression.”
The report explained that grade compression occurs when grades concentrate at the higher end of the scale and gives fewer metrics for a student’s true success across a variety of academic pursuits, such as “prizes, fellowships, or induction into Phi Beta Kappa.”
A May 2022 research report from ACT, the nonprofit organization responsible for the ACT standardized test used for college admissions, found evidence of grade inflation over the past two decades.
High school grade point averages, which encompass all of a student’s grades averaged together, have risen considerably since 1990, while test scores for math and reading stayed relatively the same.
According to ACT, a mismatch between grades and test scores “suggests grade inflation is most likely present.”
Further, it found that the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated grade inflation after “95 percent of schools closed their doors and shifted to learning at home.”
Since not all students had access to the same “technological resources” and learning spaces, “some school districts moved away from the traditional A-F letter grading system at the beginning of the pandemic to a more lenient policy dictated by districts, schools, or classroom teachers.”
Standardized testing has become an accepted part of the U.S. education system. Tim Boyle/Getty Images
Therefore, “grades … are less reflective of differences in academic achievement across students and are more a function of school policies.”
In American classes, students are typically graded through a combination of test scores, homework assignments, papers, and essays.
These individual assignments and test grades are then averaged over the length of the class, whether it’s a half-semester, semester, or full-year course.
The average score of all assignments and tests in the class is based on a percentile of zero to 100.
Scoring 59 percent and below earns the student an F, 60 to 69 percent earns a D, 70 to 79 percent earns a C, 80 to 89 percent earns a B, and 90 percent and above earns an A.
One common example of grade inflation is simply making tests easier so more students pass them.
Ivy Scholars, a college education consulting group, explains another example of grade inflation involving “curved” grading.
On some final exams, an instructor will adjust the “passing grade” based on a bell curve of the average grade received by most students.
While traditionally, a 70 to 79 percent score would be considered a “passing grade,” if the average score on an exam is 65 percent, that becomes the grade needed for students to pass that particular exam.
The bell curve is moved downward, with 65 percent becoming the new center score on the curve in place of 70 percent. If enough students score particularly low on an exam, the “passing grade” could be a D or an F instead of a C.
The Epoch Times reached out to the FLDOE to ask if grade inflation is a factor in Florida schools and how it could affect measuring student success, but did not receive a response before publication.
Real-World Effects of Grade Inflation
The growing trend of grade inflation is testing many teachers.Olanrewaju Fayiga is a 12th-grade math teacher at Buchholz High School in Gainesville, Florida.
Mr. Fayiga moved to the United States in 2000 after teaching in Nigeria for 17 years.
As a former engineer and devoted mathematician, he takes his job teaching remedial math seriously, always focused on the futures of the students who take his classes each year.
Like ACT, Mr. Fayiga said grade inflation has been going on farther back than the COVID-19 pandemic.
He thinks that the local, state, and federal governments, regardless of the political parties controlling them, all want to “look good” by getting as many students to graduate as possible.
“They are just looking for avenues to make students get the diploma without really earning the diploma,” Mr. Fayiga said.
“The unfortunate thing is that they have been inflating the grade for them since they were in elementary school. They just keep pushing them and doing that and telling them indirectly, ‘Oh, you are good,’ when the kids have no clue what is going on,” he added.
A student taking her high school exam, The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). Fethi Belaid/Getty Images
Some of his 12th graders struggle with basic math but still graduate from high school, Mr. Fayiga said.
He explained that people in various levels of local and state government in Florida push for grade inflation because the schools and districts are graded just like students. When more students graduate from high school, the school and district grades increase.
“All the districts want to have good grades, so they will do everything they can just to see that students pass,” Mr. Fayiga said.
If students in 11th or 12th grade have failed required classes for graduation, the school will put them in a “boot camp” where they can retake the class online and sometimes finish it in as little as two weeks, he said.
If the student fails the test at the end of the course, they are allowed to retake the test as many times as necessary to get a 70 percent passing grade.
He also fears what he sees as a growing reluctance from the teacher’s union to continue with standardized testing. Mr. Fayiga is told that it “takes too much time away from teaching.”
“I am of the opinion that standardized testing is necessary. Without it, how will the government know whether we are doing what they expect us to do?”
American Students See School as ‘Prison’
Many of his students, who he says seemingly lack any concern about how they will survive once they are in the world fending for themselves, are consumed by apathy.“In my part of the world, we believe that education is our gateway out of the prison of poverty, the prison of ignorance. We see school as our way out.
“Unfortunately, Americans see the school as the prison,” Mr. Fayiga lamented.
When he’s not busy at Buchholz pushing his students to succeed, he’s working towards his doctorate in education with a thesis topic that perplexes him.
How can students who have been in school for 12 years or longer quit when they are months away from the finish line?
Every year, he said, at least three to four 12th-grade students in his class drop out with only months left before graduation.
“They see school as a prison, and [that they] are getting out of the prison before the rest of their colleagues,” Mr. Fayiga explained.
He also worries that many of these students have no desire to work either once they leave school and become adults.
Sometimes, his warnings go unheeded.
“And I’ve told my students over and over and over that, if you are not careful, the way you are going, you are putting yourself in what is called economic slavery.
“Because you are dependent on other people to feed you,” Mr. Fayiga said.
Fixing Problem One Student at a Time
But the problem is not just at the local or state level.“This problem is national. Until the nation as a whole changes, we are going to continue going in the wrong direction,” he explained.
As a teacher, Mr. Fayiga said he has to balance his expectations. He once coached a fellow math instructor who experienced nothing but resistance from his students.
“You’re making a mistake thinking in your brain that you can influence all of them. You have to give yourself a very low expectation when it comes to influencing students. Tell yourself, ‘I will be glad if I can influence one student per class.’
“You'll be surprised. You will be able to influence more than one. And when you do that, it will be a source of joy,” Mr. Fayiga added.
