Advanced Placement Test Dumbed Down

High school grade inflation imposes long-term harms, new research shows

Paul E. Peterson, senior fellow, Hoover Institution; Henry Lee Shattuck Professor, Harvard University.

Maura Healey, Massachusetts Governor: “We are so proud that our students are yet again leading the nation in AP scores and breaking all-time records. . . Apples to apples, student to student, across the country, Massachusetts students are at the top, as I want them to be.”

Sara Sympson, College Board: “This refinement strengthens the accuracy of our scoring. . . In fact, AP standards for qualifying scores remain more stringent than grading standards in many college classrooms.”

Frederick Hess, American Enterprise Institute: “Students and families are happier because they get college credit. . . Schools are happier because they look good. Governors and state agencies are happier because they get to brag about it.”

Pedro Martinez, Massachusetts Commissioner of Education: “We’ll look into anything that might be a discrepancy.”

The federal angle

The Massachusetts Board of Education is celebrating the highest scores any state has ever received on Advanced Placement (AP) examinations, tests used for college admissions and substitutes for college courses. Seemingly, students are better prepared for college than ever before.

Were it only so. Unfortunately, the higher scores are due to easier AP tests, not more learned students. The College Board, the agency in charge of AP exams, admits its questions are easier and passing scores have been lowered on key tests like the English Language exam. They justify the easier tests as an adjustment to a less demanding curriculum in high school and lowered expectations by colleges and universities. In other words, AP is simply adapting to a broad decline in educational standards.

Sadly, the College Board is not wrong in its claims about lowered standards in high school and college. Grade Point Averages (GPAs) in high school climbed over a half a grade level from about a “B –“ to over a “B +” between 1985 and 2020, according to an analysis of data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). College grades are being inflated at about the same rate.

A three-university team of economists has taken a careful look at the detrimental effects of grade inflation for high school students. They examined teacher grading practices in Los Angeles between 2004 and 2013 and in Maryland between 2013 and 2023. Students taught by teachers who boost grades by one grade level higher than the average teacher are less likely to finish high school and are less likely to enroll in college. They are more likely to be unemployed, and their earnings are lower. The cost to any one student of having just one such teacher runs around $100 a year for the first six years after graduation. Taking into account the many students taught by each teacher, the numbers add up. The scholars estimate the annual price paid by all students taught by an inflation-prone teacher of average-length career and an average number of students in the classroom comes to $213,872. The societal costs are substantial.

To provide apple-to-apple comparisons across teachers, the researchers compared teachers working at the same school in the same year. They adjusted for student performance in 8^th grade and various background characteristics.

Teacher ethnic and gender characteristics are not correlated with grade leniency, but weaker teachers are more likely to inflate grades than more effective ones. Also, those at the beginning of their career are more likely to be lenient than those with more classroom experience. Grade inflation may be used to ease students’ disappointment with their class or as a mask to disguise how little has been taught.

The research team distinguishes between average inflation across all students and “passing inflation,” giving a “D” rather than an “F”. As said, nothing good comes from overall grade inflation. When average grades are inflated across the board, students are less likely to finish high school, go to college, and earn as much as they would otherwise. Passing inflation has some short-term benefits. When students pass, it helps their self-esteem, lowers absence rates, and reduces chances of dropping out. But the study finds little benefit of a passing grade on college enrollment or wages.

The study provides no support for the decade-by-decade grade inflation the College Board’s AP program accepts as inevitable. For the sake of future students, the College Board, state education boards and commissioners, elite universities, and other standard setting institutions must halt this debilitating trend in American education. Harvard is talking about taking steps to halt its steep inflation rate, but exactly what actions will be taken remains unclear. It is tempting to blame individual teachers, but they worry their students will be placed at a disadvantage if they set strict grading standards when others do not. It will take strong leadership to reverse direction.

The documentation of the harm that comes from grade inflation is a strong first step to resetting the nation’s standards. An important step toward that goal has now been taken.

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Paul E. Peterson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and the Henry Lee Shattuck professor of government at Harvard University.