Does Competition among Schools Encourage Grade Inflation?

Autor/in	Walsh, Patrick
Institution	University of Arkansas, Education Working Paper Archive
Titel	Does Competition among Schools Encourage Grade Inflation?
Quelle	(2010), (32 Seiten) PDF als Volltext kostenfreie Datei Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
Schlagwörter	High Schools; Competition; Grade Inflation; Student Recruitment; School Holding Power; School Choice; Grade Point Average; Assignments; Difficulty Level; Grading; College Admission; College Bound Students; Academic Achievement; School Administration; Social Influences; Teacher Administrator Relationship; Secondary School Teachers; Scoring + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? High school; Oberschule; Wettkampf; Choice of school; Schulwahl; Assignment; Auftrag; Zuweisung; Schwierigkeitsgrad; Notengebung; Schulnote; Hochschulzugang; Hochschulzulassung; Zulassung; Schulleistung; Sozialer Einfluss; Bewertung
Abstract	This paper considers whether high schools in competitive environments use grade inflation to attract and retain families, perhaps in addition to more constructive responses. Two measures of grade inflation are used: the cutoffs used by each school to assign a letter grade to a percent score; and high school GPA after controlling for test scores, a rich set of student and school characteristics, and (for a subset) college GPA. Two measures of competition are used: the enrollment-based concentration of school districts in metropolitan areas, and an instrument for this concentration. In both OLS and IV, increased competition significantly affects grade cutoffs: a one standard deviation increase in competition results in about a 0.12 to 0.18 standard deviation fall in the grade cutoffs (ceteris paribus, lower cutoffs yield higher grades). However, in both OLS and IV, competition does not significantly affect the actual assigned grades as measured by GPA. This pattern of results suggests that school administrators under competitive pressure may ease grade standards, but that teachers may re-adjust their scoring to leave actual grades relatively unchanged. (Contains 7 tables, 1 figure and 4 footnotes.) (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Education Working Paper Archive. Department of Education Reform, University of Arkansas, 201 Graduate Education Building, Fayetteville, AR 72701. Tel: 479-575-3172; Fax: 479-575-3196; e-mail: edreform@uark.edu; Web site: http://www.uark.edu/ua/der/EWPA
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2017/4/10