This study employs hierarchal linear modeling to examine whether high school grade inflation occurred between 2010 and 2021, including for students who were tested during the pandemic. The study does so while simultaneously accounting for student and school characteristics. This is the first study, to the current authors' knowledge, that makes use…

In this paper, we show that the design and decentralized, school-based scoring of New York's high school exit exams--the Regents Examinations--led to the systematic manipulation of test sores just below important proficiency cutoffs. Our estimates suggest that teachers inflate approximately 40 percent of test scores near the proficiency cutoffs.…

When educators see that two students received a B in a particular course in two different schools and/or years, does it indicate the same level of understanding and achievement for both students? This paper addresses the assumption that grades are equivalent within subjects across schools and years. By comparing course grades to a standardized…

This study examined the change in term grade point average (GPA) from 1974 through 2004 for 368,282 undergraduate student records at a large, research-extensive university in the Southeast. Descriptive analyses showed an increase in term GPA and average SAT scores over the 31-year period. Although average SAT and GPA increased, standard deviations…

Changes in high school grading standards were evaluated, focusing on mathematics because only in mathematics was it possible to adjust grades to take into account tested achievement. Data are from nationally representative surveys, the High School and Beyond Study, and the National Education Longitudinal Study of 1988. Descriptive analyses were…

Revisits determinants of college student evaluations in a model allowing for the possibility that (expected) grades are simultaneously determined. Estimates evaluations using both ordinary least squares and two-stage least squares, finding that grades do affect a college instructor's evaluation. Results suggest that instructors can "buy" better…

This report presents a taxonomy of precisely what is studied, where, and by whom, in universities, community colleges, and postsecondary trade schools in the United States. It is based on data from the National Longitudinal Study of the High School Class of 1972 (NLS-72) and the High School and Beyond/Sophomores (HSB/So) survey of high school…

This study, which focuses on one college of the City University of New York (CUNY), is in two parts. The first part is a paper titled "Open Admissions and CUNY in Crisis: A Comparison of Remedial and Non-Remedial Students"; the second paper is titled "Factors Affecting Grading Practices." The first study examined the difference…

There is clear evidence that the average grades earned in high school have been going up for some period of time. This study examines the question of whether students of varying backgrounds have experienced similar increases in grade point average (GPA) over a 25-plus-year period. Changes in SAT verbal and mathematical scores for the same gender…