Not All A's Are Equal -- UW Ranks Tough- Vs. Easy-Grading Schools
High-school grades can make or break a student's chances for acceptance to a college. Yet a grade-point average (GPA) of 3.0 at one school might be worth a lot more than a 3.0 from another.
The University of Washington admissions staff tries to account for this difference by conducting a statewide study every year comparing the high-school grades of students from each school with the grades the same students receive after a full year at the UW.
It's a way of assessing how tough different high schools grade.
The results of that study were made public for the first time last spring by The Seattle Times in a story about college admissions.
"The UW chart," as it's come to be called, generated tremendous reaction from parents, students and school-district staff across the state.
"It stirred up a great deal of discussion about the whole question of grades and how they're given and what a GPA means," said Grant Hendrickson, superintendent of the Issaquah School District.
The study covers a five-year period, and is recalculated annually to add the newest class. The latest study, completed this fall, covers students who enrolled as UW freshmen from 1991 through 1995.
The chart at right shows the GPA difference as a decimal. If the students from a particular high school who went on to the UW had an average high-school GPA of 3.65, for instance (out of a possible 4.0), and their average first-year GPA at the university was 2.96,
the gap is -0.69.
The smaller the drop, theoretically, the tougher the high school's grading practices.
The best scenario would be a high school whose students go to the UW with strong GPAs - and then sustain close to that kind of performance at the university.
Look at the figures for Seattle's Nathan Hale High, for example. It has sent 113 students to the university over the last five years; their GPAs have dropped, on average, 0.36 of a grade point after a year at the UW, compared to the statewide drop of 0.60. Nathan Hale students also earn an average 3.08 GPA after their first year at the university - significantly above the 2.98 earned by the average UW freshman.
The worst scenario would be a group of students admitted with high GPAs who consistently drop below the UW's overall 2.98 GPA average.
"That would be a real warning sign and cause for concern," said Tim Washburn, director of UW admissions - concern both about inflated grading practices in the high school and about the adequacy of the school's instruction.
Publication of the chart this spring spawned a flurry of inquiries - directed both at local schools, asking about their performance, and at the UW, questioning the study's methodology.
Some parents with students in expensive private schools, for example, were upset because some of their schools weren't ranked as highly as some public schools. And some schools with strong academic reputations argued that their best students don't go to the UW - implying that's why their position on the chart might be lower.
But that shouldn't make a difference, Washburn said.
"If they had stringent grading uniformly at their school, grades should not drop here any more than any other student's grades."
Other schools decided they should try to improve their standing, one way or another. As one principal of a low-ranked school said, "Well, the news wasn't very good." But his school was going to figure out why it ranked so poorly, and try to do something about it.
In the Issaquah School District, the governing councils of the two high schools - Issaquah and Liberty - decided to stop the practice of counting an A- minus as 4.0 rather than 3.7. Though grade inflation had been discussed in the district for some time, it was brought to the fore by the UW study.
But that decision was protested by a 4.0 junior who felt losing the extra points could hurt her chances to become valedictorian. As a consequence, the decision was delayed, letters on Issaquah's grading practices were mailed to parents and five hearings were held on the subject.
The hearings showed public sentiment strongly in favor of the change, and the Issaquah district will no longer round A-minuses up to A's - retroactive to the start of this school year.
------------------------------------- How the UW uses its grade comparisons -------------------------------------
The University of Washington uses the results of its survey of grade-point averages (GPAs) two ways:
-- In routine admissions, it makes a favorable GPA adjustment for students from the toughest-grading schools in the state. (This year, that includes the first 11 schools on the list.)
-- Then, in taking a closer look at students who don't qualify for automatic admission, but who are still considered prospects for the UW, it counts the toughness of the high school's grading as one of a number of criteria that earn a student points toward admission (23 points are possible).
Students from schools in the top third of the list - those whose GPAs drop the least - get 3 points; those in the next group get 2 points; and those from the bottom third get 1 point.
NOTE: The column headed "Students" shows how many students went to the UW from 1991 through 1995. Results for schools with small samples should be treated with more caution than those for schools that have sent large numbers of students during this five-year period.