How the SAT-ACT Helps Fairfield County Students Combat Grade Inflation

Since we work with students from schools throughout Connecticut, we have a deep comparative understanding of the strength of different Connecticut High Schools.

If your child attends one of the stronger schools in the area – Darien, Greenwich, Westport, Ridgefield, New Canaan, among others that come to mind – I have some good news and some bad news.

I regret to report that I meet with an abundance of students that have an average above 90, on the 1-100 scale, or if letter grades are given, somewhere in the A- range or if on a 4.0 school, somewhere above 3.5. When I first started this work years ago, I assumed that I must be working with a small subset of top students. As my children started progressing through the school system and I got to meet their friends – with a clear variety of scholastic abilities – I started noticing grade inflation. How could Jake (fake name!) have a 3.5? I also realized the same with my students since some of those with 95 averages seemed like they would be B to B plus students. The culprit – grade inflation.

Why is this bad news? Those who get As from rigorous Fairfield County high schools are really earning old school As. It definitely is not fair but colleges will also see As from a plethora of students at Grade Inflation High. That diminishes the real achievement of students earning As at top high schools in Connecticut.

The good news: in most cases, students who get the “real As” do very well on comparative tests. Hard to believe – I know – but the SATs and ACTs end up being more fair than grades in such cases.