INFLATE – School Grades: Between Inflation, Stability and Deflation

Project Description 

Do you have to do less and less for good grades? School grades form a central source of information in the context of transition recommendations and decisions after primary and lower secondary school, vocational selection processes and the allocation of university places in numerus clausus-restricted subjects. In addition, they influence school and vocational degree aspirations and are predictive for later professional employment, academic success and the discontinuation of educational paths. From a pedagogical perspective, grades should also fulfill a whole range of other functions in addition to the selection and allocation of pupils. For example, they should communicate performance levels or provide motivational incentives.

Despite the great importance of school grades, difficulties with regard to their meaningfulness and comparability have been extensively documented, particularly in the past two decades. Controversies regarding the inflationary awarding of good or very good school grades, so-called grade inflation, form a kind of culmination of these debates. The term grade inflation is used in academic literature to describe a phenomenon that is characterised by a systematic improvement in grades or grade point averages without a parallel increase in actual performance or competencies. Developments in grade-relevant psychosocial characteristics as well as graduation aspirations and transition recommendations must also be taken into account.

To date, there are hardly any empirical studies on this important issue in Germany. The project “INFLATE – Between inflation, stability, and deflation: New perspectives and indepth analyses of the differential development of grades, achievement-related psychosocial characteristics, recommendations, and aspirations in primary and secondary education” aims to rectify this issue. In the DFG-funded research project, a comprehensive investigation of these questions is being conducted together with the University of Bonn (Prof. Dr. Nicolas Hübner) and the Health and Medical University Potsdam (Prof. Dr. Malte Jansen) using various large-scale data sets (e.g. PISA, IGLU, TIMSS, IQB-Bildungstrend).

The project context includes two doctoral projects. One project (Thorsten Fahrbach, University of Bonn) focuses on grade inflation in the narrower sense, while the second project (Judith Weinecke, DIPF) focuses on possible inflationary tendencies in the development of degree aspirations and the awarding of transition recommendations, as well as the associated role of grade development.

Project Objectives 

The aim of the project is to enrich the discussion about possible grade inflation, which is largely based on assumptions and suppositions, with empirical findings. The project adopts a broad and differentiated perspective by including psychosocial characteristics, graduation aspirations and transitional entitlements. Furthermore, potential differences in development trends depending on structural (e.g. type of school) and personal characteristics (e.g. gender and social background) will be identified.

Funding 

Cooperations 

The project is being carried out in cooperation with

• Prof. Dr. Nicolas Hübner (University of Bonn)
• Prof. Dr. Malte Jansen (Health and Medical University Potsdam)

Other cooperation partners are

• Prof. Dr. Petra Stanat and Dr. Lars Hoffmann (IQB)
• Prof. Dr. Michael Becker (Dortmund University)

Project Management

Project Team

Project Details