South Carolina bans minimum grade policies as scrutiny around grades grows
Two days after South Carolina’s grade floor law was signed, faculty at Harvard University passed a policy capping the number of students who can receive A’s to 20 percent of an instructor’s class plus four students. The move was a response to perceived grade inflation in the aftermath of the pandemic: A report from the college showed A’s made up two-thirds of the grades given to undergraduates at Harvard in the spring of 2025.
Some education experts blame grade inflation in K-12 classrooms for contributing to the problem at the college level.
“It’s hard to hold the line at the higher ed level if you have kids coming into higher ed who are less prepared than they used to be,” said David Griffith, national research director at the Fordham Institute, a conservative-leaning think tank.
This spring, testimony from educators and advocates on grade floor policies alarmed South Carolina legislators. The state is “hurting these kids” by having grade floors in schools, Rep. James Teeple, R-Charleston, said during a committee meeting.
In 2025, South Carolina’s on-time high school graduation rate was nearly 87 percent, a 10-year high point for the state. At the same time, only 33 percent of seniors were considered college ready by graduation — a metric on the state’s report card based on college admissions test scores and advanced classes. More than 1 in 5 students in the state were chronically absent from school — nearly double the rate of chronic absenteeism in the state prior to the pandemic.
