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This tweet in a short thread from Sam Freedman hits the nail on the head for me: "Incidentally I think grade inflation is the wrong terminology. It's not like

This tweet in a short thread from Sam Freedman hits the nail on the head for me: "Incidentally I think grade inflation is the wrong terminology. It's not like the pound inflating. It's like we suddenly decided to switch to the yen. You simply cannot compare this year to previous ones in any meaningful way." https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1424806593187794944 https://twitter.com/Samfr/status/1424806593187794944

thaumasiotes 5y ago
We compare pound prices to yen prices all the time. If Britain suddenly switched to the yen, it would be incredibly easy to do before-and-after price comparisons.
- blensor 5y ago
  Yes but by using an exchange rate. That would mean you have to use a factor to compare current with past grades
- frereubu 5y ago
  This feels like you’re almost deliberately missing the point. The metaphor isn’t perfect, but surely you get what he’s trying to express. If your quibble is with the metaphor, a more constructive contribution would be to give a better one.
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    The metaphor isn't that bad. The interpretation is bad. The claim that measuring inflation (1) between last year's prices in pounds and this year's prices in pounds, or (2) between last year's prices in pounds and this year's prices in yen, differ in any significant way, is a bit of nonsense that should discredit the author. The entire concept of inflation is that the value of the monetary unit differs from year to year, and you want to find out what the difference is. And similarly, the notion that British grades from this year can't be compared to British grades from two years ago is also nonsense. They are fundamentally similar phenomena and they can be compared. For political reasons, much less data was collected this year. That doesn't mean this year's data is different in kind. It means this year's data is low-quality.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

We compare pound prices to yen prices all the time. If Britain suddenly switched to the yen, it would be incredibly easy to do before-and-after price comparisons.

blensor 5y ago
Yes but by using an exchange rate. That would mean you have to use a factor to compare current with past grades
frereubu 5y ago
This feels like you’re almost deliberately missing the point. The metaphor isn’t perfect, but surely you get what he’s trying to express. If your quibble is with the metaphor, a more constructive contribution would be to give a better one.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  The metaphor isn't that bad. The interpretation is bad. The claim that measuring inflation (1) between last year's prices in pounds and this year's prices in pounds, or (2) between last year's prices in pounds and this year's prices in yen, differ in any significant way, is a bit of nonsense that should discredit the author. The entire concept of inflation is that the value of the monetary unit differs from year to year, and you want to find out what the difference is. And similarly, the notion that British grades from this year can't be compared to British grades from two years ago is also nonsense. They are fundamentally similar phenomena and they can be compared. For political reasons, much less data was collected this year. That doesn't mean this year's data is different in kind. It means this year's data is low-quality.