Grade inflation investigation: ethical challenges to the social work academy

ABSTRACT

The assessment of students by the social work academy measures their performances on standardized tests. Accusations of racial bias and other prejudices have long challenged the legitimacy of such tests, which may be unofficially used as indicators of an applicant’s intellectual and scholastic potential. When combined with GPA, the highest integrity is assumed. GPA is an acronym for a student’s grade point average. Most commonly, GPAs are used to give account of academic achievement. Thus, GPAs may be more valued by students than their standardized test score or subject matter, given the institutional weight placed upon such information. GRE is an acronym that stands for Graduate Record Examination, which, in social work, often contrasts with GPA. It is a standardized test designed to predict how well a student applicant might perform in postsecondary education. The significance of GPA to students cannot be overstated. Subsequently, student evaluations of faculty teaching empower students to cultivate instructors for inflated grades. In the aftermath, this poses a challenge to the academy: how much authority capital is it willing to assign to investigation? This is an investment in maintaining prestige of the social work profession commensurate with the future of its ethical ideals.

KEYWORDS:

• Grade inflation
• ethics
• GPA
• GRE

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ronald E. Hall

Dr. Hall has lectured on skin color both domestically and internationally, including by invitation Bates College (Lewiston, ME), Pennsylvania State University (State College, PA) and Oxford University (Oxford, UK). Among his most recent speaking events include Paramaribo, Suriname, where he was guest speaker for a medical convention convened on color.