Grading Scale Research
Fran Kiker
21 April 2009
When someone questions the grading scale, it seems to me the real questions are, “How can
colleges tell the difference between my child’s school division and others?” and “How will my
child get into college given the differences?”
So, if different school divisions have different grading scales,
doesn’t it seem like colleges are choosing between apples and
oranges? How can they be fair? On the surface it seems like a
simple issue, but it is not. And it is not just about the grading
scale.
What are the issues to cover to make an informed decision about changing a grading
scale?
1. How do colleges "judge" applicants?
2. Where are our students competing?
3. What are other school divisions doing?
4. Is there a trend?
5. What does historical data tells us about our grading scale?
6. Are colleges being "fair"?
The question is actually complex, and the issues are more
like apples, oranges, grapes, bananas, and strawberries.
We need to look at several issues both from within and
without our school, and from the college perspective.
1. We know from colleges and from our experience that colleges look most often at:
a. grades
b. rigor of classes taken and the opportunity in the school division to take difficult classes
c. GPA and, thus, the weighting of grades
d. academic standardized tests such as SAT, ACT
e. special talents or activities
f. history of how our students do at their college (reputation of our division)
The priorities of this list change from college to college.
2. Where are our students competing?
Our students go to many different types of schools competitive to non-competitive, in-state, out
of state. Approximately 82% of our students go to Virginia schools.
Our students compete mainly with other Virginia students. A more in-depth survey of schools
our students attend would be informative.
3. What are other school divisions doing?

5% of Virginia school divisions have an A range 95-100
 40% of A's range from 94-100
 40% range from 93-100

9% range from 90-100.
 This distribution has not substantially changed since a 1999 VEA survey.
Weighting changes GPA’s and within Virginia, our college admissions people tell us, there are
divisions (especially around Richmond) whose top students graduate routinely with 5.0+ GPA’s.
There is a school division in New Jersey where 7.0+ is not uncommon.
Virginia does not have a mandated grading scale. What about other states? Only Florida has a
mandated grading scale. All other states leave that up to the individual school division.
4. Is there a trend? There are three northern Virginia systems, Fairfax, Stafford, and Loudoun
who are either changing or investigating a 10-point A. This is a direct result of a grassroots
parent organization called “FAIRGRADE” which gathered 10,000 e-signatures to persuade the
Fairfax County School Board. Fairfax superintendent did not recommend a grade scale change.
5. What does historical data tells us about our grading scale?
In 1992, we did change our grading scale…”A” went from 95-100 to 94-100.
In the following 6 years:
 our percentage of A's did not change
 the percentages of B's actually went down 3%.
 so, changing the grading scale in our case did not produce more A's or B’s.
 however, in the past 10 years, the percentages of A’s and B’s have increased.
6. Are colleges being "fair"? Can they discriminate between different grading scales, courses,
weighting, rankings at different school division?
This question is really unknowable in the sense that colleges are not going to open up their
admissions process and let us do research on what seems to be the overriding factor in
admissions.
On the other hand it is not a grand mystery. School divisions in Virginia must provide a school
profile sheet with each transcript that goes out. Among other things, it tells the grading scale,
how courses are weighted, what the percent of A's, B's, C's, etc. are at that school.
College Board and Petersons published each year books with the descriptor of what individual
colleges in the United States have admitted. School counselors are reliable sources of
information about college admissions.
Colleges tell us that they deal with these inconsistencies all the time. Below are admissions
officials from several colleges that are quoted from a roundtable discussion in Fairfax County:
Greg Roberts, UVa: We are looking at you within the context of your school and the
argument that students applying or counselors – admissions officers, excuse me, that are
looking at candidates from farther away, each of your files will have a profile – an academic
profile - that tells us the grading scale. Typically the guidance counselors will tell us a little bit
about the student about his or her performance within that larger, undergraduate class. I
think it is very important to note that at many schools, most I would argue – this is not a
formula. It’s not an equation. It’s not a graph. It’s not a chart. It’s not a grid. It’s a
holistic review. We’re looking at everything within your file and we’re looking at it
multiple times.
Andrew Flagel, George Mason University: what we’re trying to say in several terms is that
its not just a number. So the idea that it’s just grades or it is a score is a misinterpretation of
the process. And the anxiety that you are all feeling and that we have all done a dandy job of
extending dramatically in the last few years is because we have created this impression that
there is some sort of secret formula we can figure out and if you just knew that number, that
would unlock the secrets and suddenly everybody would get into the school they want.
But the reality is that everybody can’t get into the school they want because we are going to
turn some folks down. Now that means that if the grading scale disadvantages, meaning the
students are getting lower GPAs through the grading scale, then I want to see the grading
scale changed. The question is it the grading scale that’s doing that? Is that actually the case? I
think there are reasonable discussions on both sides that I have heard from lots of folks on the
issue. But it is not entirely clear that the grading scale causes different grades to happen.
Shannon Gundy – University of Maryland: When teachers are evaluating students, I think
they make very deliberate decisions about the kinds of grades that they want to assign to
students and how those students are assessed within that curriculum. Admissions officers are
going to do exactly the same thing. When the school grading scale is changed, then we are
going to have to look at how we are evaluating the students within that system. But I
definitely don’t think that you can make an automatic assumption that because one
school system has this grading scale and another school has that that has anything to
do with the quality of the curriculum within the school system.
Mildred Johnson, Virginia Tech: Students come from many, many grading scales. We look
at the student within the context of their school. Teachers teach and grade to the grading
scale. We do not plug students into a formula. We review all 17,500 applications by hand. We
have a staff member that concentrates on the Roanoke Valley. (conversation with F. Kiker)
How would we decide? What is fair?
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

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Do objective research.
Determine the elements
that are important: our
reputation, our expectations,
our current success, talk with
college admissions directors.
Get input from our students,
parents, teachers, administrators
Anticipate ramifications:
student achievement, SOL
performance, graduation
rate.