

It may be self-serving for a test maker to produce research showing that high school grades are rising and less reliable. Yes, it’s a justification for why high schoolers shouldn’t be freed of onerous college admissions tests, but it’s also more evidence that grade inflation is significant and worth closer attention.
The latest is an analysis of more than 4 million high school seniors who took the ACT from 2010 to 2021. ACT’s researchers calculated that the number of test takers with an A average surpassed the number of B students after 2016. Today, A students make up a majority of ACT test takers, some of whom are not college bound and take the test as a required high school assessment.
As grades rose, achievement fell. These recent A students, for example, posted lower ACT scores than A students from a decade ago. Achievement declines were seen across the board among students scoring in the middle and bottom too. That’s a worrisome sign that today’s students aren’t better or harder working and more deserving of higher grades.