Validity Evidence for Self-Reported Statistics Grades

Self-reported grades are widely used in statistics education research, yet their validity as proxies for official grades is rarely evaluated. This study examined the validity of score interpretations based on self-reported university-level statistics grades, using 649 observations from nine courses across four universities in the UK and Türkiye. Evidence from correlations, intraclass correlations, and equivalence tests supported the interpretation of self-reports as reasonable estimates of official grades. Discrepancies were typically small and did not meaningfully bias associations with nine psychological variables, supporting their use in group-level research. Demographic and psychological predictors explained little variance in discrepancies, which appeared more strongly linked to course-level factors. These findings provide empirical support for the research use of self-reported statistics grades, while highlighting the importance of contextual influences on accuracy.