It used to surprise me how many students were on the High School Honor Roll. Many of them were on "high honors."
When I was in school, 50+ years ago, we had an A honor roll and a B honor roll. We normally took 4 academic classes, and you had to earn 4 A's to be on the A honor roll. One B would drop you to the B honor roll. I assume that any C or less kept you off the honor roll altogether. I never got a C so I don't actually know.
Hardly anyone in my class consistently made the A honor roll (all A's). It would happen randomly that one or two people would be on the A honor roll during a grading period. The first 3 years of high school were more difficult because you took many required courses. Electives were either the college route or the trades (for lack of a better word) route. Trades would include industrial arts, agriculture, home economics, business. From my lofty (snobbish) viewpoint, I considered people taking the "trades" courses mostly did not have the "smarts" to take the college-prep courses. As I recall, there was only one required course senior year. American Problems, what would be considered a civics class, I guess. So senior year was the year when there were more people on the A honor roll. Even then, there were not a lot. Maybe 4, 5, 6. I happened to make the A honor roll at least a couple times during senior year. It helped that I took 5 academic classes that year, and you only needed 4 A's to be on the A honor roll. (Was I on the A honor roll before senior year? Possibly, but I do not recall.)
Seldom did the top students (valedictorian and salutatorian) have 4.0 grade points. It just didn't happen. And there were not multiple students in those top positions. In later years I would read the announcement in the hometown newspaper of the graduating class's top students, and it was not unusual for them to have 4.0 grade points. Plus, there were multiple students in the top spot -- two, three, four, or more.
I would think, These kids are not smarter than we were 50 years ago. How can there be so many on the High Honor Roll? How can they have earned 4.0's? Why are there so many valedictorians and/or salutatorians? Aside from the difference between High Honor Roll (current) and A Honor Roll (historic), which I assume did not require one to have all A's, the one explanation was grade inflation.
When I was in school, 50+ years ago, my teachers used the scale below. Or one very similar. I definitely remember 93 - 100 for an A. When our son began high school in 2001, his school used a 10-point scale: 90 - 100 was an A. The English department at his high school still used the older scale his freshman year. But by his 2nd year, it, too, had changed to the 10-point scale.
| Letter Grade | Percentage Range | Description |
|---|---|---|
| A | 93 - 100 | Excellent / Outstanding |
| B | 85 - 92 | Above Average |
| C | 77 - 84 | Average |
| D | 70 - 76 | Below Average / Passing |
| F | 69 and below | Failing |
And, while the more lenient grading scale is now used, I think teachers are just not inclined to grade "tough." It's what they were used to when in school. The "everyone gets a trophy" mentality is something they grew up with. Don't criticize, be positive.
Our son was in the "gifted program" 2nd through 5th grades. It was a self-contained classroom of students selected on their grades and by the recommendation of their teachers. The student was selected (usually while in 1st grade) and remained in the program until he started middle school. He was not retested, and I do not know of anyone voluntarily leaving or asked to leave. Our son had a wonderful 4th/5th teacher, same both years. At the beginning of the 4th grade year, he explained his approach to grading. He would use both a letter and a number. Apparently several years before he used only letters, and when some students had C's, D's, or lower on their report cards, the parents had a fit. How can my child have a C or D when he is in the gifted program? In a meeting with the teacher, parents, and principal, it was agreed that the lowest grade on the report card would be B. However, the teacher also included the percentage. The report could say: Science - B - 67.
This notion of grade inflation is not new. A recent opinion article in our local newspaper pretty much reached the same conclusion I have. The author grew up a few years older than me, and his hometown is very much like mine roughly 50 miles apart.
The News-Gazette, June 6, 2026
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