Real or fake - Is student learning related to grades? - Preprint

Sep 14, 2026

Uploaded by Eliana

Graduation rates have risen since the 1990s, while students spend less time on academic work and may enter the workforce without essential skills. One explanation is grade inflation, where assigned grades exceed what performance justifies. Although prior research measures inflation using indirect cohort indicators, this study uses pre/post scores on a standardized content-knowledge assessment to examine how GPA relates to student learning and whether changes meaningfully reflect knowledge gains.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages11

Reading Time28 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Graduation trends and learning concerns

Grade inflation as an explanation

Study approach

Research question and method

Conceptual background

What is grade inflation?

Why grade inflation might happen?

Real or fake: Is student learning related to grades? Autumn N. Wild∗ and Joseph M. Kush† Department of Graduate Psychology, James Madison University Center for Assessment & Research Studies, James Madison University June 21, 2024 Abstract While graduation rates have increased since the 1990s, modern students are spending less time on academic tasks, ultimately entering the workforce without the skills necessary to succeed. One explanation of this phenomenon is that of grade inflation, in which students’ course-assigned grades are higher than what their performance warrants. Although recent literature has attempted to quantify the prevalence of grade inflation, many have relied on cohort-level data or other indirect measures (e.g., SAT) . Utilizing pre/post scores on a standardized assessment of content knowledge, the current study examined the relationship between GPA and student learning. Results indicated that while improvement in knowledge was significantly related to grades, this relationship was not of practical significance. Implications for additional research are discussed in-depth. Keywords: grade inflation; student learning Institutions of postsecondary education in the United States have seen graduation rates continually increasing since the 1990s (Denning, Eide, Mumford, Patterson, and Warnick, 2022b; Irwin et al. , 2023), providing an optimistic view of the state of education. Upon graduation, college students are expected to have training in various skills including reading, writing, and critical thinking. Yet these skills have been found lacking in graduates, leading to young professionals entering the workforce without the qualifications necessary to succeed (U.S. Department of Education, 2007) . More recent research has found that as compared to prior cohorts, modern college students spend less time on academic tasks (Babcock and Marks, 2011) yet receive higher grades (Kostal, Kuncel, and Sackett, 2016; Rojstaczer and Healy, 2012) . The idea that graduation rates are increasing while students are simultaneously spending less time on task and lacking the necessary qualifications for their profession raises serious concerns regarding the state of higher education. ∗ Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Autumn Wild, James Madison University, 298 Port Republic Road, Harrisonburg, VA 22807. Email: [wildan@jmu.edu](wildan@jmu.edu) †Portions of this manuscript were presented at the International Conference on Assessing Quality in Higher Education, Berlin, Germany, June 2024 One common explanation of this phenomenon is grade inflation, whereby students receive grades higher than what their actual performance warrants. While researchers have hypothesized why grade inflation may be occurring (Denning, Eide, Mumford, Patterson, and Warnick, 2022a; 2022b; Kostalet al. , 2016), many have noted the challenges in attempting to disentangle warranted versus inflated grades (Jephcote, Medland, and Lygo-Baker, 2021; Kostal et al. , 2016) . Though difficult to implement, one of the most straightforward solutions to answering this question is to administer a standardized, external assessment of student knowledge that corresponds to increases in performance or learning. The current study directly investigates the issue of grade inflation at a particular university by examining the relationship between learning and grades. Utilizing pre/post scores from a universitywide standardized assessment, changes in content knowledge were compared with assigned grades. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to investigate grade inflation by leveraging individuallevel pre/post scores on a direct measure of student learning to compare with course grades. 1 What is Grade Inflation? Denning et al. (2022a; 2022a) argued that based on expected trends in various student and institution characteristics (e.g., less time spent studying, fewer available instructional resources) college gra

FAQs

What is grade inflation, according to the paper?

Grade inflation refers to an increase in awarded grades over time that is not warranted by corresponding student achievement. The paper emphasizes the lack of related learning or performance growth behind higher grades.

How does the study test the relationship between GPA and student learning?

The study compares course-assigned grades with changes in content knowledge using pre/post scores from a universitywide standardized assessment.

What do the results suggest about grades and learning?

Knowledge improvement was significantly related to grades, but the relationship was not practically significant. This indicates that grade changes did not translate into meaningful differences in learning gains.

Sep 14, 2026

Uploaded by Eliana