on Saturday (the same high school I went to many years ago). The graduating class was 300 +/-. Of those 300 students, 60 had GPAs of 4.0 OR BETTER.

I mention this because when I graduated, my class had FOUR students with a 4.0 average (I wasn't one of them), and there were no advanced placement (AP) classes that could bring the GPA up above 4.0.

My question is this: was my graduating class dumber'n most, or has there been some small amount of grade creep over the years?

I'm not sure about the grade creep, but all students need do to earn a passing grade is show up.

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If you want change stop electing "liberal: democrats and "radical" Republicans. Find and support true Conservatives; those who believe in fiscal responsibilities, individual accountability, and a smaller government, with less control of your daily life.

Small? Try huge.

Of course there has been grade creep. Two major reasons 1) there has to be, that 4.0 is too important for college entrance determination, so high schools have to make sure their better students have it.

And 2) great public relations. Similar to all those "my kid is a honor student", make parents happy without having to teach the little buggers anything.

Purely anecdotal but I'd say there has been some grade creep. A few years ago, went to the graduation of a buddys son. Small town Mo, they had like 72 kids graduating. Not sure of the GPA's but I remember being amazed when they announced that 60 of the kids had received scholarships of one kind or another!
Its a farming community so some of the scholarships were for agricultural studies...not a lot of money but still a scholarship. There were also 2 kids going to West Point and one going to Annapolis. I thought that was pretty unusual for such a small school.
My buddys son had a 3.6 and a scholarship. Good kid and smart in some things but some of the things he DIDN'T know were really scary. I had the same feeling then that grade creep had definitely had an effect.

Grade Creep?? No, grade sprint is more like it. How can 20 percent of the class have a GPA higher than 4.0 and at the same time have a constant barrage of studies showing American students are as dumb as a post

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Its better to have fussed and crabbed then never to have fussed at all - Lucy

Well, we have 27 years since the election of Reagan and his conservative philosophy, the attitude best exemplified by McCain: "those jobs are gone forever" when talking about manufacturing jobs, with the attitude that in the future the US will do the jobs that require "thinking" while the rest of the world will do all the hard work jobs.

Basically a political culture that denigrates those who labor manually in manufacturing or in the trades, and assumes that everyone who matters in society will be a college graduate.

Unions who were advocates for "labor", and who sponsored and promoted training programs for their members, were emasculated. Trade schools have been cut back, and the trades removed from high schools in lots of cases. But of course, that is consistent with the message that such jobs aren't to be considered respectable.

So, with college the only path to any sort of life in the US, everyone needs to qualify for college to have a life in these United States. Thus, passing from grade 12 to grade 13 must take place with the same reliability as passing from grade 1 to grade 2.

those jobs are gone forever" when talking about manufacturing jobs, with the attitude that in the future the US will do the jobs that require "thinking" while the rest of the world will do all the hard work jobs.
These jobs are gone forever because of Affirmative Action (Discrimination), Unions (Organized crime) and environmentalists (Lawyers) in America.

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Drill offshore now

My neice (it was my neice's graduation) had a 4.17. She applied at USC, UCLA and U of San Diego and didn't get in. If I was on an admissions committee, I'd be looking pretty hard at SATs, organizations, etc. Grades are too much a function of parent involvement.

>>>I got a couple degrees. I'd trade both of 'em to be able to lay block in a straight line.

This 'grade creep' has nothing to do with politics. You are nothing but an extreme partisan hack, turning this issue into conservative/liberal.