ACT data show grade inflation is above national average in Kentucky

Earlier this month, I posted my first blog, “ACT Scores sink, Kentucky’s drop more than the national average,” about the 2022 ACT college entrance test results. That took an initial look at ACT Scale Scores and the percentages of Kentucky’s high school graduates who were ready for college and/or careers.

Now, let’s look at another very interesting graphic generated with the ACT’s new Data Visualization Tool.

This is the result of one of my searches in that tool. The graphs need some explanation.

Consider first the blue line marked by blue stars in the Kentucky graph on the left. If you look at the legend at the bottom left of the graphic, you will see that this line is for the high school graduates who failed to score at or above the ACT’s College and/or Career Ready Benchmark score in all four academic areas tested: English, math, reading and science. For the High School Graduating Class of 2013, the overall Grade Point Average or GPA (on a 0 to 4 scale) for this group was 2.5. Flash forward to 2022’s graduates who didn’t meet even one of the ACT’s Benchmark Scores, and their GPA was now 0.4 point higher at 2.9. It’s the same real academic performance, but nearly a half a point higher GPA.

Now, take a look at the top line in the Kentucky part of the graphic. The students denoted by the blue line and blue dots met all four ACT Benchmark Scores and are clearly the top performers. In 2013, they had a GPA of 3.6 and that only rose 0.2 point to 3.8 by 2022.

Now, look at the black line with black ”X” markings. This is for the students who only met ACT’s Readiness Benchmark in just one area of testing. As you can see, their GPA also rose by 0.4 point from 2.9 to 3.3.

In contrast, the data associated with the orange line, which is for students who met three out of the four benchmarks, only shows GPA inflating by 0.3 point.

So, as we move up the performance levels shown by ACT’s Benchmark Scores, we see grade inflation decreases, but it is evident for all students. However, the inflation is greatest for Kentucky’s lowest performers.

Next, compare the Kentucky situation to what is happening nationwide. In a majority of cases, the Kentucky GPA results are inflating faster than the comparable nationwide data show. In fact, in the case of the top performing students, those who met all four benchmarks (Blue dot line), back in 2013 the Kentucky GPA was 0.1 point below the national average. Now, they are equal.

Basically, whether we just look at Kentucky or the nationwide situation, students are getting higher GPAs for the same levels of performances that would have earned lower grades in earlier years.

It’s worth noting here that there are attacks against even using the ACT. Some want to do away with the ACT and just have colleges rely on GPAs for admission. However, the trend of grade inflation evidenced above indicates that the ACT is needed to gain a better picture about what is happening in education. Is student performance really improving, or are grades just getting more inflated, making it riskier for colleges to just rely on GPAs for admissions decisions?

Data Source Information

This data came from the new ACT Data Visualization Tool, which is something like the NAEP Data Explorer we have used for years. You can access the tool by clicking here.

Then, scroll down to the section headed “Tableau Data View.”

Above the US map, click on the tab titled “Class Averages and Benchmark Percents.” This opens up a new web page.

On this page select only Kentucky as the Group 1 State Selection.

Then, click just to the right of the pull-down box to collapse it and to access more boxes.

Next, click the “Academic Achievement” area and select “High School GPA.”

Finally, click the “Student Characteristic” box and select “Number of Benchmarks Met.”