THE ISSUE

Grade inflation has been happening in Ontario secondary schools for at least the past 20 years.  Reference the book Ivory Tower Blues:  A University System in Crisis (ISBN-13 978-0802091826),  which has a discussion regarding grade inflation in secondary schools.

Many coveted programs seem to require high-90s averages for students to have a chance to get
accepted into such a program, causing significant stress on students, parents/caregivers, teachers, school administrators.  Similarly with respect to scholarships.  It could even soon be the case that students will need a 100% average to be considered for certain programs at certain universities.  For students applying to the same program at the same university, how does the university know which students truly earned the high average versus which students had their grades boosted somehow?

Teachers and school administrators face pressures, at times bullying, from students, parents/caregivers, and school administrators to increase a student's final course marks, to help with students' chances of getting accepted into a coveted program.  Similarly with respect to scholarships.  Some students end up having grades boosted quite significantly.

There is variability within course sections in a school, and across schools throughout the province, in how teachers assess and evaluate students in a course.  There is no standardization apart from the requirement to "assess and evaluate the curriculum" (based on the Ontario Ministry of Education course curriculum document).  So the same student within a school could receive a significantly different final mark for a course depending on the teacher, and could receive a significantly different final mark if they were at a different school.

- There is not a lot of transparency on how different universities/programs decide which students to accept.  Do they rank students with similar entrance grades based on which secondary school they are coming from?

REFERENCE THE FOLLOWING RECENT NEWS ITEMS:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-high-school-grades-on-the-rise-9.7072730 (link as of 14 Feb 2026)

https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/audio/9.7075903 (link as of 13 Feb 2026; radio call-in show based on the article)

 

WHAT WE ARE REQUESTING

We ask that the Ontario Ministry of Education (MoE), along with other stakeholders:

 -Examine the the overall issue of grade inflation at ON secondary schools, with the aim of recommending actions to curb the issue.  The group examining the issue should consist of people chosen from stakeholders (MoE, students, parents/caregivers, teachers, school administrators, university educators and administrators).

 Consider action such as implementing standard province-wide "diploma exams" for various key 12U secondary school courses, with the aim of having some level of consistency and objectivity across the province, independent of teacher/school assessment and evaluation.  For example, Alberta has such diploma exams, written on the same day across the province for a given course, evaluated independently from the classroom teacher, and worth 30% of a student's final grade for a course.

 Consider recommending that certain programs at certain universities implement some form of entrance exam that would form part of the evaluation of a student for acceptance into the program.

 Consider recommending that universities provide more transparency on their acceptance processes for various programs.