Discussion Papers, Department of Finance and Management Science, Norwegian School of Economics (NHH)
No 2010/5:
Grading standards, student ability and errors in college admission
Jarle Møen ()
and Martin Tjelta ()
Abstract: Grades are important for admission of students in most
higher education programmes. Analysing admission and student performance
data at a major Norwegian business school, we find that the grading
practice of teachers at regional colleges sending students to the school is
affected by the average performance of the students being graded. Teachers
at colleges recruiting good students from upper secondary school tend to be
strict in their grading practice, while teachers at colleges recruiting
less good students tend to follow a lenient practice. This has implications
for the interpretation of grades and hence for optimal admission
procedures. We develop a methodology to assess the consequences of
differential grading standards. Approximately ten percent of the students
in our data are admitted at the expense of more competent students. We
demonstrate costs for the school admitting wrong students and in particular
for the rejected students.
Keywords: Grading practices; Differential grading standards; Admission policy; (follow links to similar papers)
JEL-Codes: A20; I21; (follow links to similar papers)
19 pages, June 29, 2010
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