The Chronicle of Higher Education: Colloquy

COLLOQUY

The question


Many state and federal officials have pushed in recent years to create scholarships or tax breaks on tuition that are contingent on students' achieving certain grade-point averages. The most famous of those plans is the HOPE scholarship, created in Georgia and adapted by President Clinton in the federal tax legislation that passed this year. Supporters of those programs say that the grade requirements encourage academic achievement and reward good students. But critics say the requirements could have many unintended consequences, from grade inflation to the creation of an incentive for students to take easy classes. Do such scholarships lead inevitably to grade inflation? Do professors feel more pressure to award high grades when they know that a valuable scholarship may be at stake? Do the benefits of those scholarships outweigh the costs?

For further background information, see this Chronicle story:

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