American high schools and grade inflation

American high schools and grade inflation

A high school student in the low-income hurricane affected areas of Louisiana may be graded with lower standards than a high school student in an upper middle class society in Southern California. If this is the case, it is the result of grade inflation. This approach could be a consequence with less economically strapped schools that are unable to attract teachers and the inability to provide the same amount and quality of academic equipment. Therefore, teachers in these lower class schools have a difficult time teaching the students the knowledge they need to know when leaving the classroom for the real world. Because American high schools are not on the same level economically and school guidelines are not as clearly defined, the economic difference may force those on the lower end to use grade inflation to create equity in academic evaluation. Does American high school grading system effectively evaluate the student’s grasp of knowledge?
    High school students in the United States tend to graduate with different levels of knowledge, even though they have taken the same classes. This inequality results in students at the university having totally different educational foundations to build their studies with. In Europe students applying to university who have taken the same classes do not differ as much in academic levels like Americans. E.D Hirsch offers in “Teach Knowledge, Not ‘Mental Skills’” examples of how specific school guidelines can help a countries’ students finish at equal level of knowledge. Therefore, the “problem is avoided [like] in the best and fairest school systems in Europe an Asia, which offer programs similar to the core-knowledge schools” (116).   European high school students have been offered the same knowledge because every class has its components, which are taught to every student in the nation taking that class. This helps every student and brings the whole class forward thus, no one gets left behind. But in...