At Milton, “A is for average” is more than just a joke. In the 2022-23 School Profile (an academic overview sent to colleges which used to include junior students’ grade distribution in each course), 133 students in a class of 196 received a grade in the A-range for Junior English. For those enrolled in courses such as Cal Stats (Advanced Calculus & Mathematical Statistics), Spanish 5 (Honors), Multivariable Calculus, and Advanced Latin, no one received a grade below an A-range. Perhaps only the Science Department showed slightly more distribution, spanning from A+ to C. Nonetheless, even a B+, now considered “proficient,” was a rarity in this group of juniors.
Today, Milton’s grade inflation remains difficult to refute. In both 2024 and 2025, the percent of students who reported A-range GPAs in The Milton Paper’s “State of the Acad” (SOTA) survey was above 80%. The English Department’s 2024 effort to standardize grading across classes by equating proficiency with a B+ grade suggests that some faculty are trying to fight against this issue, but grade inflation continues, stagnating growth.
Still, students attest that their experiences of grading differ greatly. While some see teachers as overly lenient on grading, others feel that grades are unjustly deflated. Some of us on the editorial board have had teachers take it upon themselves to tackle grade inflation specifically in their own classes, giving students much lower grades than their faculty peers, even compared to those teaching other sections of the same courses.
To be clear, grade inflation is not a Milton-specific, nor a high school-specific, problem. On October 27, as reported by The Harvard Independent, Harvard released “An Update on Grading,” in which “inflated” and “inconsistent” grading across departments was outlined. The report claimed that Harvard is “failing to perform the key functions of grading,” finding that over 60% of the grades given to undergraduates are As. It denounced a perceived shift among faculty from “providing critical feedback to providing emotional support.”
On one hand, academic pressure seems to have escalated following these efforts: according to SOTA, the percent of students reporting feeling academic insecurity has increased by 10.6% since last year. Despite the stress which harsher grading warrants, grade deflation encourages students’ diligence by rewarding previously undermined hard work. At a school which aims to prepare students for university-level coursework, instilling the value of academic rigor is crucial. Yet, demonstrating that one’s level of effort determines their grades requires Milton families’ compliance. The client-supplier nature of relationships between parents of private school students and teachers creates a level of entitlement to a student’s recorded excellence. Milton therefore must maintain a balancing act between grading honestly and painting students as “successful.”
Additionally, artificially inflated grades (or deflated grades, for that matter) create the possibility of confusion for college admissions officers assessing student transcripts. It’s harder to differentiate academic performance when two students have very similar transcripts, which shifts the emphasis in the college process. Moreover, when a B from one teacher is equivalent to an A- from another teacher of the same course, grades become meaningless within Milton and misleading and unjust within the context of college admissions. Since the 2022-2023 school year, Milton has not released grade summaries in School Reports to college. Without this key data, Milton obscures baseline academic performance from colleges. The reason for its removal is unknown. The report still lists brief descriptions of the curriculum, an overview of the graduating class, and emails of Milton’s College Counselling Office, among other details; yet without the proper context which the grade distribution table provides, our (already-similar) letter grades teeter toward arbitrary, failing to communicate each student’s academic performance.
Transcript leniency in high school also runs the risk of graduates struggling in college. Alumnus David Lee ’25 reports that his “academic experience at Yale did not align at all with what Milton led [him] to expect.” Lee states that he has “felt like [he has] been in Milton exam week for the last couple months,” reflecting his facing academic hardship upon graduating, despite Milton’s reputation as a challenging preparatory school. “I’ve certainly been humbled plenty of times both academically and extracurricularly,” Lee said, “most of the people here really feel enthusiastic to learn—certainly a larger portion of people here compared to Milton.”
Despite Milton’s efforts to curb eroding academic standards, uneven grading remains the norm. There is no indication or news that the departments will reform grading policies in the near future. While we at TMM encourage teachers to pursue fairer grading across the board, we understand the difficulties presented by this issue. Thus, we propose a simple fix: that median grades from students’ courses (same year, class, and teacher) appear on their transcripts next to their earned grades. Or, simply bring back the grade distribution chart on the School Profile. Without requiring drastic change within departments, this shift would create greater transparency surrounding what letters on students’ transcripts truly mean within the context of Milton. We believe the escalation of school marks cannot remain ignored. If the A stays the baseline, we must at least acknowledge it.