Student Learning in the Higher Education Compact

American Enterprise Institute. 1150 Seventeenth Street NW, Washington, DC 20036. Tel: 202-862-5800; Fax: 202-862-7177; Web site: http://www.aei.org

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Higher Education; Grading; Student Evaluation; Grade Inflation; Educational Change; Government Role; Politics of Education; Federal Government; Presidents; College Students; Integrity; Accountability; Government School Relationship; Educational Quality

The Trump administration's October 2025 Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education sparked an overdue conversation about the relationship between universities and the federal government. The administration identified issues that deserve to be addressed. But its approach provoked serious objections, even from sympathetic observers. That has created an opening for alternatives that are more workable and rooted in legislative authority. To that end, AEI's Conservative Education Reform Network commissioned contributions from several right-of-center higher education thinkers. Each tackles one of the compact's eight priorities, seeking to offer Congress, state lawmakers, and campus leaders a path forward. In this report, Mark Bauerlein takes on student learning. The Trump administration is correct to emphasize grade inflation's connection to student learning--excess numbers of high grades indicate that coursework has become too easy and student learning too shallow. Nobody on campus has an interest in curbing grade inflation, so pressure must come from the outside. While the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education contains no enforcement mechanisms regarding grades, merely forcing schools to publicize grade distributions punctures the pretense of excellence and is an important step in addressing the problem. The college rankings industry could also play a role by factoring grade inflation into its calculations. Ultimately, the best way for colleges to get students to learn more is increasing the rigor of their coursework. The ideal agent for this improvement is state legislators, who have the power to set general education requirements for public universities.

ERIC

2026

ED677983