California high school students are earning more straight A’s than ever, but education experts and available data suggest the trend may have less to do with academic gains than with changing grading standards.
The number of college applicants reporting a perfect 4.0 GPA or higher has doubled over the past decade, even as state assessments show a post-pandemic decline in reading and math performance. The widening gap has fueled concerns about grade inflation, with critics warning that some students are reaching top universities without mastering basic skills such as fractions.
University of California data reviewed by The Post show that the number of applicants with straight A’s climbed from 52,989 in 2015 to 103,138 for the class of 2025. The increase was especially pronounced during the COVID-19 pandemic, with a notable surge between 2020 and 2022.
Critics say the trend reflects a troubling erosion of grading standards, as teachers face pressure to award high marks for minimal work. Glenn Sacks, who teaches social studies in the Los Angeles Unified School District, is among those raising concerns.
“When I was hired at one LAUSD school, the administrator showing me my classroom — a man I liked and respected — told me, ‘Don’t fail too many kids–remember, it’s easier to replace one teacher than 35 students,’” Sacks told The Post.
Sacks said pressure on teachers to eliminate D’s and F’s began during the pandemic and has continued. He said educators were encouraged to avoid large numbers of failing grades to protect enrollment and attendance, while being told that a high failure rate could indicate a need to change their instruction.
Charles Cole, an education advocate who attended California public high schools before graduating in 2001, said grade inflation has been developing for decades but has intensified in recent years.
Cole attended much of high school in Oakland, where he earned top grades. He said he was shocked to discover that he needed remedial courses after enrolling at a California State University.
“Those classes were fairly easy for me. It didn’t take a lot,” Cole said of the A’s he received in high school. “I’m happy and grateful for the grades because it helped me get into college. But the level of preparation was a huge letdown.”
Cole now works with students in California and across the country through Energy Converters, an organization that helps underrepresented students succeed in school. He said inflated grades can ultimately put students at a disadvantage by masking gaps in their education.
“A large swath of these students are functionally — they’re not on grade level,” he said. “They’re multiple grade levels behind, but they have the confidence of, ‘Hey man, I just graduated with a 3.0. I’m about to go to college.’”
California’s state testing data supports Cole’s concerns, showing a far weaker picture of student achievement in reading and math than the rising GPA figures suggest. Among California 11th graders, proficiency rates on the Smarter Balanced Summative Assessments were just 57% in English and 30.5% in math during the 2024-2025 school year.
They have improved since hitting lows of 54.8% and 27% in 2021-2022, but are generally lower than pre-pandemic times, according to data from the state Department of Education.
While the University of California GPA data includes out-of-state applicants, the vast majority of applicants since 1994 are California residents.
“A 4.0 simply doesn’t distinguish a student in the way it once did,” said Marc Zawel, who co-founded admissions consulting group AcceptU. “In our work with students, we have absolutely seen grades become more compressed at the top.”
While grade inflation may not be the only explanation, the rising numbers of high GPAs make it hard for colleges to figure out who’s actually qualified, Zawel added. It’s why more than 1,200 UC professors claimed in an open letter this year they’ve been forced to teach “middle school” math in calculus and other courses, demanding that the University of California reinstate SAT testing as an admissions requirement.
The UCs removed testing requirements in 2020 to appease lefty activists who claimed the exams were unfair on non-white students, but professors now say it’s fueled rampant grade inflation that’s flooding colleges with unqualified students.
“The current admissions metrics, based primarily on GPA and essays, can no longer reliably distinguish readiness for university-level STEM majors in an era of severe grade inflation and AI-assisted application essays,” the professors wrote in their open letter.
Experts told The Post that new habits formed by the pandemic, when classes moved online, likely accelerated grade inflation. Simon Nicholas, who heads a test-prep tutoring company that’s worked with numerous California students, said COVID led to the rise of ”asynchronous classes” — which students can attend whenever they choose — and a ”downshift in rigor.”
Students can miss a call or not pay attention when they attend, knowing everything will be posted online, Nicholas said.
“The idea that we can do these things online, well maybe we can. But is it as effective as doing things in person? Probably not,” he said, adding that the rise in artificial intelligence is only exacerbating the problem.
Others have blamed education leaders for the grade inflation, saying that there’s an incentive to get every student to pass.
“Some districts are handing out high marks to students who haven’t mastered basic reading, writing, and math, then passing the buck to colleges that are left dealing with underprepared kids,” Sonja Shaw, candidate for state superintendent of education, told The Post.
“That’s not helping anyone. It’s a disservice that Sacramento has ignored for far too long,” she added.
The professors asked the Board of Regents to reinstate standardized testing requirements for admission, and officials say they’re considering that request to take up next year.
“University of California has accelerated its timeline to review and provide recommendations on standardized testing,” the UC system said in a statement.
Nicholas agreed on the need to reinstate testing requirements, saying it could go a long way in fixing grade inflation at high schools.
“It would strongly disincentivize” grade inflation, he said, “because it’s embarrassing to say that, you know, we have 48% of our students or whatever with an A, and they can’t crack a 20 on the ACT.”
“It behooves the school then to be more honest, or to be more scrupulous, or more rigorous about its scoring,” he added.
