Behind the Craft · Sunday, September 6, 2026
Sue, CEO of Brilliant, observes a concerning trend in the US education system where test scores are falling while grades are rising. She attributes this to a phenomenon of grade inflation, where standards are lowered to appease parents and maintain school rankings, rather than addressing underlying performance issues. This trend is particularly evident when comparing US students to international benchmarks.
“Kids can't read or do math anymore. And we hear all the time from colleges that used to have strong stem degree programs and they're now looking at remedial algebra solutions for college students.”
“And so we are changing the standards so that more students can get an A instead of fixing the underlying problem.”
“And so we have this phenomenon where on the standardized test, you have lower performance, just on an absolute basis. And that's masked by the fact that, you know, at the school, we've also lowered the standards.”