The Reliability of College Grades

Adam S. Beatty; Philip T. Walmsley; Paul R. Sackett; Nathan R. Kuncel; Amanda J. Koch

doi:10.1111/emip.12096

The Reliability of College Grades

Adam S. Beatty, Philip T. Walmsley, Paul R. Sackett, Nathan R. Kuncel, Amanda J. Koch

Psychology (Twin Cities)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

34 Scopus citations

Abstract

Little is known about the reliability of college grades relative to how prominently they are used in educational research, and the results to date tend to be based on small sample studies or are decades old. This study uses two large databases (N > 800,000) from over 200 educational institutions spanning 13 years and finds that both first-year and overall college GPA can be expected to be highly reliable measures of academic performance, with reliability estimated at .86 for first-year GPA and .93 for overall GPA. Additionally, reliabilities vary moderately by academic discipline, and within-school grade intercorrelations are highly stable over time. These findings are consistent with a hierarchical structure of academic ability. Practical implications for decision making and measurement using GPA are discussed.

Original language	English (US)
Pages (from-to)	31-40
Number of pages	10
Journal	Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice
Volume	34
Issue number	4
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1111/emip.12096
State	Published - Dec 1 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 by the National Council on Measurement in Education.

Keywords

Course grades
Grade point average
Measurement
Reliability

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The Reliability of College Grades

Abstract

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Keywords

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