By Dr. Keith Adams, Ed.D., CMAA
President & Founder, CKA SAVE Project, Inc.

In April, I wrote about the Grade Inflation Trap and what happens when the bar moves instead of the student. Recently, a story from South Carolina reminded me that this conversation has moved from college campuses to the K-12 classroom and now to state law.

A Hechinger Report story by Ariel Gilreath describes how South Carolina passed a law in May banning minimum grade policies, often called "grade floors." Many schools adopted these policies, which require teachers to record a 40 or 50 instead of a zero, in order to keep a few missed assignments from sinking a student's GPA. Teachers in the state say the policies have allowed some students to stop doing schoolwork altogether and still pass. The law also requires students to turn in missing work before they qualify for credit and content recovery, and it threatens noncompliant districts with the loss of 10 percent of their state funding.

I want to be fair to the other side. Supporters of grade floors make a valid point. On a 100-point scale, a single zero can sink a strong student, and no one wants a child mathematically eliminated in September. Those are real concerns, and they come from people trying to help kids.

But after thirty years in classrooms, athletic departments, and mentorship, I keep returning to what the article reveals.

The Numbers Tell a Familiar Story

South Carolina's on-time graduation rate reached nearly 87 percent in 2025, a ten-year high. That same year, only 33 percent of seniors were considered college ready. The article also notes that average high school GPAs rose from 3.17 in 2010 to 3.36 in 2021, while ACT scores fell.

The grades went up, and the readiness did not. That is the Resume Gap: the distance between what a transcript says and what a young person can actually do.

I have written about this gap in the context of student-athletes, and again when I reflected on Nikole Hannah-Jones' essay about her daughter's strong grades and weak math foundation. South Carolina shows it is not confined to one school, one family, or one sport. It can be built into a system.

Eligible Is Not the Same as Ready

One teacher quoted in the article put it plainly: if we keep saving students, why should they try? I understand that frustration, and student-athletes know the pressure it describes. Many have spent their academic lives being kept eligible. They get the extension, the second chance, and the passing grade that keeps them on the roster and on schedule.

Eligibility keeps a student moving. Readiness prepares them for what comes next. Those two things can look identical on a report card, and they are not the same.

The article also makes clear that grade floors are only one piece of the problem. Teachers describe pressure from parents, students, and administrators to award higher grades than students earn. Because schools are judged on their report cards, one former school board member said, "We focus on what we measure." If the measurement is a number that can be adjusted, the number will be adjusted, and the student will carry the consequences into the next classroom, the next level, and eventually the workplace.

Early Gaps Become Permanent Gaps

One concern in the article stayed with me. A teachers' association leader warned that students who receive minimum grades in the early years carry their gaps with them when they could have received help. Parents also tend to trust report cards more than test scores, so an inflated grade can hide a struggle until it is much harder to fix.

This is why I built Educational Management around three elements: Structure, Discipline, and Support (SDS). A grade is a snapshot, and a snapshot cannot do what a system does. A system catches a gap early, names it honestly, and surrounds the student with the help needed to close it before it compounds.

Beyond the Playbook: Why Preventive Mentoring Matters

Look closely at the South Carolina story and you will see a reactive system. A student falls behind, and the school responds with a minimum grade, a credit recovery course, or a passing mark at the end of the year. By then the intervention is happening after the damage is done. Even the new law, which I think is a reasonable step toward honesty, is largely a correction to a problem that began much earlier.

Greenville County's assistant superintendent for school leadership said her district will have to look at how it can support students who are at risk or facing additional challenges to help them avoid failure. I agree, and I would add that the support has to come before the failure, not after it.

In athletics, exceptional coaches don't just call plays. They transform lives, and they recognize potential in athletes long before the athletes see it in themselves. I apply that same mindset to academics through what I call Front-Loading. Instead of waiting for a student to fail a test or pile up absences, we establish academic "scouting reports" and clear behavioral benchmarks before challenges emerge. That moves a student from a defensive stance to an offensive drive toward success. In my preventive school-based mentoring work, mentored cohorts have consistently outperformed general program averages by nearly half a grade point.

The GPA is not the whole story, though. The real measure of impact lives in the students' own words. One student told me, "Without Dr. Adams, I would still not be taking my school education seriously, which could lead to the bigger problems of life later on." Another said that preventive mentoring helped them keep track of goals they would not normally have kept track of and improved their concentration and, most importantly, their desire for future success. Those students connected today's choices to tomorrow's opportunities, and no minimum grade can do that for a child.

Two other parts of this work speak directly to the issues in the article.

First, students need to own their data. The Academic Baseball Card (ABC) translates grades into "stats," so students can track their performance the way athletes track theirs. They learn to spot trends and make strategic adjustments. A student who understands the real numbers behind a grade can't be fooled by a floor, because they know exactly where they stand. That shifts them from passive recipients of grades to active managers of their academic performance.

Second, honest grades require accurate records and real advocacy. If we grade honestly, we also need to make sure the records reflect a student's current effort. Many students experience what I call "data-induced stress," the anxiety of seeing a lagging grade in an online portal that doesn't yet reflect their recent improvement. As a mentor, I serve as a bridge between students and teachers so that the digital record matches the work being done. That advocacy prevents burnout and keeps the momentum high, which matters even more when grades are no longer cushioned by a floor.

Honesty Is Not the Opposite of Compassion

I do not believe the answer to grade inflation is to punish students. At CKA, we practice Grace-Based Support. We don't lower the bar, and we don't leave a student to climb alone either. We build the ladder.

Honest grading and real support belong together. South Carolina's law may give teachers more room to grade honestly, but honest grades alone won't close a skills gap. Tutoring, monitoring, mentorship, and early diagnostic work have to come with them. The grade tells the truth, and the support helps the student act on it.

What Families and Coaches Can Do Now

You don't need a state law to start. Here is what I encourage parents, coaches, and educators to do:

• Look past the GPA. Ask whether the student can write a clear email, analyze a problem, and explain their thinking out loud.

• Check the grade against other evidence. Compare report cards with test results, teacher feedback, and real-world demonstrations of skill.

• Diagnose early. Skill gaps found in sixth grade are far easier to fix than gaps found in college.

• Find a mentor who can support the student. A consistent adult who tracks goals, advocates with teachers, and holds the student to a high standard can change a student's trajectory before a problem becomes a crisis.

• Pursue the 100/100 Standard. That means 100% academic excellence and 100% athletic, professional, and personal development, held at the same time and not traded off against each other.

  
  

Let's Talk: Meet Directly With Me

If this post raised a question about your student or student-athlete, I'd welcome the chance to sit down with you. I lead our Academic Skills & "Gap" Assessment, the starting point for CKA's Educational Management Services and the first step in putting preventive, front-loaded support in place.

Establishing the Academic Baseline

Grade inflation can mask critical gaps in foundational skills. This assessment identifies those gaps early, before they become barriers to collegiate success.

The Process

1. Initial 30-minute strategic overview

2. Completion of the Academic Baseball Card

3. Final growth strategy review session

   
   

   
   

Our Commitment to Access

Financial aid and scholarship opportunities are available to ensure all student-athletes can access this service. Visit www.ckasaveproject.org and click the Contact tab to get started.

The Bottom Line

A grade floor, a curve, or a generous rubric can change what a student's transcript says. None of them changes what the student can do.

Prevention does. Catch the gap early, tell the student the truth, and put a mentor and a system around them so they can close it. That is how a strong transcript and real preparedness finally tell the same story.

So don't settle for an inflated grade. Strive for an authentic education.

Ready to bridge the gap? Visit www.ckasaveproject.org, click the Contact tab, and let's schedule your Academic Skills & "Gap" Assessment.

Building Better Students. Developing Better Athletes. Creating Better Futures.

One Goal: Balance. One Result: Success.

— Dr. Keith Adams, Ed.D., CMAA
President & Founder, CKA SAVE Project, Inc.
President-Elect, The Drake Group
Host & Executive Producer, Odd Coaches Podcast
www.ckasaveproject.org | @ckasaveproject | @oddcoaches

Source: Ariel Gilreath, "The emerging fight against grade inflation in K-12 classrooms," The Hechinger Report, September 21, 2026.