Recently, there has been a lot of handwringing over grade inflation both at the higher education and K–12 levels, but how big of a problem actually is grade inflation?

What sort of effect does grade inflation have on student learning? Does grade inflation help or hurt college enrollment? And what impact, if any, does grade inflation have on lifetime earnings?

On this episode of The Report Card, Nat Malkus discusses these questions and more with Jeff Denning.

Jeffrey T. Denning is an associate professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin, and—along with Rachel L. Nesbit, Nolan G. Pope, and Merrill Warnick—is the author of a new paper: Easy A’s, Less Pay: The Long-Term Effects of Grade Inflation.