Measuring Grading Standards at High Schools: A Methodological Contribution, an Example, and Some Policy Implications

At schools with low grading standards, students receive higher school-awarded grades across multiple courses than students with the same skills receive at schools with high grading standards. I show school grading standards vary substantially, enough to affect post-secondary opportunities, across high schools in Alberta, Canada. Schools with low grading standards are more likely to be private, rural, offer courses for students returning to high school after dropping out, have smaller course cohorts, have a smaller percentage of lone-parent households, and have a larger percentage of well-educated parents. The article makes a useful methodological contribution in clarifying the assumptions needed to estimate and interpret a measure of grading standards from course-year-school observations of average school-awarded grades and average external examination grades.