High School Grading Policies

High school grades are the most frequently used predictors in college and university admission decisions. As such, educators and policymakers are extremely interested in the consistency of grading standards and policies across secondary schools. There has always been some concern over the comparability of grades (Adelman, 1983; Camara, 1994), and with increased competition among a growing proportion of youth planning to enter fouryear colleges, these concerns have only increased. For example, much has been written about the overall increases in average high school grades (“grade inflation”) and the general stability of standardized test scores over the past decade or more (Hardy, 1997). Since 1987, the population of students taking the SAT with self-reported high school grade-point averages (GPAs) of A+ through Ahas grown from 28 to 37 percent in 1997, a record high, while their SAT scores have fallen an average of 13 points on verbal and 1 point on math. The average self-reported high school GPA for all students completing the SAT has increased from 3.07 to 3.22 on a four point scale (A = 4) over this period of time (Camara, 1997). Similar results reported by ACT were cited as empirical evidence that grade inflation is occurring, with the largest proportional increases at the upper end of the grade distribution (Ziomek and Svec, 1995). Substantial variation has been found in the grading standards of not only high school courses, but also college courses across subject areas. Average grades have consistently been in the following order of highest to lowest grades: