Project Details
Projekt
Between inflation, stability, and deflation: New perspectives and in-depth analyses of the differential development of grades, achievement-related psychosocial characteristics, recommendations, and aspirations in primary and secondary education
Subject Area
Education Systems and Educational Institutions
Term
since 2024
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 539775686
School grades are a central source of information in the contexts of transition recommendations and decisions after elementary and lower secondary school, vocational selection processes, and access to universities. In addition, grades influence students’ aspirations of what to do after graduating from school or vocational training and predict subsequent occupational employment, academic success, and the decision to leave the educational pathway. Despite the great importance of school grades, difficulties regarding their validity and comparability have been extensively documented, especially 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 academic literature discusses grade inflation as a phenomenon characterized by systematic improvement in grades or grade point averages without a concomitant increase in actual achievement or competencies. This research project is aimed at conducting a comprehensive investigation of this phenomenon in German primary and lower secondary education using different large-scale data sets (e.g., data from the National Assessment Studies). In doing so, we will apply a broad research approach that focuses on possible inflationary developments in grades and their signaling power but simultaneously enables the investigation of stable and deflationary developmental patterns and can thus provide particularly comprehensive insights into possible changes in the significance of grades over time. To this end, the project is divided into six studies that, on the one hand, deal with a comprehensive and differentiated diagnosis and description of inflationary, stable, and deflationary developmental tendencies of grades and, on the other hand, with possible changes in the signaling power of grades over time. The planned investigations will be conducted separately for different domains, for primary and lower secondary education, and for different structural and personal characteristics (Studies 1 and 3). For a more detailed investigation of possible changes in the signaling power of grades, we will examine psychosocial characteristics (e.g., motivation) as well as graduation aspirations and school recommendations (Studies 2 and 4) over time. The significance of inflationary, stable, or deflationary developmental trends for potential changes in the signaling power of grades will also be investigated more closely (Studies 5 and 6). The results of the research project will make an important contribution to a more systematic and differentiated understanding of the meaning and extent of inflationary tendencies in primary and lower secondary education. In addition, they will contribute substantially to extending recent findings and discussions about changing competence levels and psychosocial characteristics of students with specific grades and aspirations to a broader empirical base.
DFG Programme
Research Grants
Co-Investigators
Professor Dr. Michael Becker; Dr. Lars Hoffmann; Professorin Dr. Petra Stanat
