English Audio Request

It is my suggestion that colleges educate students through rigorous course study and mandate that only a certain number of A’s be given in order to combat grade inflation. Some colleges, like Princeton, track the percentage of A’s given and try to limit this percentage. But when students are unsatisfied, teachers shoulder the responsibility as they are the exclusive providers of the student’s satisfaction because they give out the grades. Teachers are forced to dumb down their course material to cater to the “general” student. Central Michigan University professor James Felton proposes another interesting solution to grade inflation that removes this pressure from the teachers:
“A simple index, the Real GPA, is calculated as a ratio of the individual student’s instructor assigned GPA to the average GPA of the class and expressed numerically on the same scale as the inflated assigned grade. Recorded on transcripts next to the Nominal GPA, the Real GPA makes the relative degree of inflation in a transcript immediately visible and creates positive pressures on academic standards” (562).
This suggestion puts demands instead on universities to stop grade inflation by adopting this index. It seems, however, that teachers can do little to stop grade inflation considering they are pushed by students and pulled by faculty bosses. It is my belief that if the number of each letter grade is recorded, managed, and controlled, students will begin to work harder towards the teacher’s standards rather than trying to get the teacher to adopt the students’ standards.
In a world where globalization has flattened the playing field and increased competition between countries, it is most important to educate students to a level where they can compete with other students from across the globe. Gordon states that “grading laxness at all levels of American education has contributed directly or indirectly to a variety of problems, including declining scores on the SAT, decreases in the ability of American undergraduate and graduate students to understand prose, and poor training in mathematics and science, which puts American students behind their peers in many European and Asian countries” (1). If grade inflation continues, then how can this country keep its competitive edge? As grade inflation continues to spread, the controversy continues to grow.
Arguments over whether grade inflation is simply a phenomenon or a tangible problem continue, and no one can find a definite or easily adoptable solution. As a result, grade inflation is taboo, when it is a topic that should be discussed and remedied at length by university students and faculty alike.