Can We Get A Little Grade Inflation Here?

Some Fairfax, VA parents want their kids cut a little slack:

To the grade-grubbers go the spoils. And the grade-grubbers in this case are rabble-rousing parents in Virginia's Fairfax County. Residents of the high-powered Washington suburb have been battling the district's tough grading practices; chief among their complaints is that scoring a 93 gets recorded as a lowly B+. After forming an official protest group last year called Fairgrade and goading the school board into voting on whether to ease the standards, parents marshaled 10,000 signatures online and nearly 500 in-person supporters to help plead their case on Jan. 22. After two hours of debate, the resolution passed, a move critics consider a defeat in the war on grade inflation.

What amazes me here is the pointlessness of this debate. Wherever you determine the numerical cut-offs from one grade to the next, the teachers doing the grading and writing the questions are well aware of it and accommodate. The culture of academic standards at the school is far more important than the printed numbers on the syllabus.

FWIW, here is Landsburg on fighting grade inflation.