In the modern education system, the quality of educational services has become the most relevant topic. The rating system aims to improve the differentia of academic performance through competition and rivalry. The primary task of grading is to increase students’ motivation to master academic disciplines. However, this system partially carries a negative side, expressed in interest not in improving the quality of knowledge but in achieving first place in the rating table among other academic units. The inflation of marks is a significant problem that demands reforms in the modern educational system.
The essence of the grading system is to determine the level of a student’s mastery of the material, while its purpose is to compare a student’s performance with classmates. The college system has some disadvantages because it is subject to inflation and, therefore, cannot be fully justified and reliable. Grading should allow one to compare different students (Ellenberg). However, learners in college get similar grades and cannot be ranked; therefore, grading is unreliable. Moreover, randomness starts to have a strong influence on the ranking. Therefore, system validity is controversial and needs to be rethought. High grades are far from an idle matter for numerous students: ratings, and therefore discounts, depend on them. The grading system is not always objective, but there are many educational formats in which grading is, to some extent, expert. To make assessment less biased, it is essential to eliminate subjectivity and focus on evaluating fundamental and practical skills rather than on testing with a wide variation of results (Ellenberg). Additionally, there is a need for other transcripts to reflect the success level.
Inflation makes it difficult to grade students as it has obvious disadvantages. The price of grades continues to fall, and student expectations continue to rise (Ellenberg). Hence, there is unemployment: an honors graduate applies for a good position, but their knowledge does not match it. Thus, students remain dissatisfied with the schools, which leads to a decrease in the number of applicants in subsequent years. Moreover, moral, psychological, marxist, and geopolitical issues stem from the question of inflation (Ellenberg). This process does not make assessment impossible, but it significantly affects validity. The sources of bias are that examinations usually consist of the impossibility of excluding the subjective side of the scoring. It leads to some scores being inflated, reaching the highest mark, while others remain at a low level. Constructive validity implies forming an assessment that will accurately reflect the purposes of its application. Hence, an example of its implementation could be testing that includes the necessary objects of study and evaluation that correlates with external constructs.
Thus, some individuals think that the current evaluation system has become obsolete due to its inflexibility and lack of objectivity. As a result of grade inflation, students lose initiative, independence, and competitiveness in their studies. Detachment of control often turns into a subjective bias, and this needs to be changed by introducing new approaches and reforms to the learning process and assessment of its results.
Work Cited
Ellenberg, Jordan. “Don’t Worry About Grade Inflation.” Slate, Web.