Grades Are Going Up. Are Students Getting Better?
What the Research Says and What We Can Do About It.
A new study from the National Bureau of Economic Research has a finding that should stop every educator, parent, and mentor in their tracks: grade inflation, the practice of giving students higher grades than their work actually warrants, is quietly costing kids their futures.
Grade inflation hurts students’ employment opportunities.
Researchers analyzed data from over 800,000 high school students in Los Angeles and Maryland, tracking them through their careers. What they found is striking. Students who were consistently given inflated grades had lower test scores, lower college enrollment rates, and lower earnings as adults. One grade-inflating teacher, they calculated, reduces their students’ lifetime earning potential by over $200,000 per year of teaching.
Let that sink in.
The easy “A” isn’t kind — it’s costly.
The easy “A” isn’t kind — it’s costly.
How does grade inflation happen?
We often think of lenient grading as compassionate. A teacher who doesn’t want to see a student fail, who wants to protect their confidence, and who gives the benefit of the doubt. And there’s something genuinely human about that impulse.
The study does make one important distinction: there’s a difference between inflating grades across the board and giving a struggling student a passing grade to keep them from being held back. That kind of grace, helping a student stay in the game long enough to find their footing, shows some real benefits, especially for lower-performing students. But raising everyone’s grades to avoid discomfort? That’s where the harm accumulates.
How does grade inflation hurt students?
But research shows that inflated grades send the wrong signal to students, colleges, and, eventually, employers. When a student gets an A without earning it, they don’t build the skills, the habits, or the resilience that an A is supposed to represent. They miss the feedback that tells them where they need to grow. And they show up to the next stage of life underprepared.
The system is slow. Kids are not.
Here’s my frustration: we’ve known for a long time that grading standards have been slipping. High school GPAs have risen by nearly half a letter grade since the mid-1980s, while standardized test scores have flatlined. The data has been building for decades. And yes, school districts are debating what to do about it. Some are moving toward more rigorous grading policies. Most are moving slowly.
In the meantime, there are real kids in classrooms right now who deserve better than comfortable lies about how they’re doing.
There are real kids in classrooms right now who deserve better than comfortable lies about how they’re doing.
This is why I founded Keystone Network. Our mission is to connect high school students, college students, and young adults, especially first-generation students navigating systems that weren’t built with them in mind, with the college access support and career pathway guidance they need to actually get somewhere. Not just to get through. To get somewhere.
And one of the hardest truths we sit with at Keystone is this: a lot of the young people we work with have been passed along. Graduated from high school without the skills their diploma implied. Told they were ready for college when nobody had actually prepared them for it. Given A’s they didn’t earn, by teachers who meant well.
We are downstream of grade inflation every single day.
What Genuine Support Actually Looks Like
Real support isn’t telling a kid they’re great when they haven’t done great work. Real support is:
- Holding the standard and holding the relationship at the same time. You can believe in a student and tell them the truth. In fact, you can't really do one without the other.
- Making failure survivable, not invisible. A student who fails a test with a mentor who helps them understand why and try again learns far more than one who was quietly passed through.
- Connecting effort to outcome. Young people need to repeatedly experience that what they put in shapes what they get out. That lesson doesn't stick when grades are handed out, regardless.
- Being the person who doesn't give up on their potential. This means staying in the conversation, staying curious about them, and pushing because you see what's possible, not because it's comfortable.
The research confirms what great teachers and mentors have always known intuitively: students rise to meet high expectations when they’re held with care. The bar isn’t the problem. It’s whether someone is standing next to them while they clear it.
Show up as the person in their life who refuses to let them believe they’ve peaked when they haven’t even started yet.
We Can't Wait for the System
Policy change is necessary. Grading reform matters. But systemic change is slow, and the students who need us most don’t have time to wait for the debate to resolve.
What Keystone exists to do, and what I believe every mentor, teacher, and caring adult can do, is show up as the person in a young person’s life who tells the truth, holds the standard, and refuses to let them believe they’ve peaked when they haven’t even started yet.
That’s what mentorship is. That’s what teaching, at its best, has always been.
As a mentor, your honest feedback, encouragement, and willingness to share your experiences can help a young person not only succeed in school, but build a more prosperous and fulfilling life.
If you’re interested in mentoring a student in our network, we would love to hear from you. Learn more about mentorship and other ways to support our work.
