Grade inflation and law school admissions
| Date | 11 July 2008 |
| Pages | 224-235 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/09684880810886240 |
| Published date | 11 July 2008 |
| Author | Winai Wongsurawat |
| Subject Matter | Education |
Grade inflation and law school
admissions
Winai Wongsurawat
School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology, Bangkok, Thailand
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the evidence on whether grade inflation has led to
an increasing emphasis on standardized test scores as a criterion for law school admissions.
Design/methodology/approach – Fit probabilistic models to admissions data for American law
schools during the mid to late 1990s, a period during which trends of grade inflation can be observed,
and detect changes in emphasis on grades and standardized test scores as admissions criteria over
time.
Findings – The juxtaposing trends of grade inflation and of the increasing predominance of
standardized test scores in law school admissions suggest the possibility that grade inflation has had a
negative impact on the value of grades as a signal of student ability.
Practical implications – The empirical evidence of potential undesirable consequences of grade
inflation may persuade education professionals to take active measures to control the inflationary
trend.
Originality/value – Viewing grades as a signal of a student’s ability, this study is the first attempt
to measure the responses of signal receivers to grade inflation using real-world, behavioral data.
Keywords Examinations,Assessment, Qualifications, Standards, Law schools,
United States of America
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
An important function of grades is signalling the quality or ability level of students to
potential employers or graduate schools[1]. Ideally, students who are the brightest,
most responsible, and hardworking receive the highest grades and are thus
appropriately offered the best jobs or admissions to prestigious graduate schools.
Grade inflation, roughly defined as a phenomenon in which the distribution of grades
becomes more lopsided towards “high grades” (A’s), has the potential of disrupting this
signalling mechanism. When employers or graduate schools observe a growing
number of applicants with good grades, they may become less confident in drawing
significant implications about an applicant’s ability from her grades. The possibility
thus arises that some other source of ability signalling such as standardized test scores
will become an increasingly dominant factor in decision making among hiring firms
and graduate school admissions offices.
This paper investigates whether and how the role of a student’s grade point average
(GPA) as a signal of academic ability changes in the presence of grade inflation. It
employs a detailed dataset of law school application outcomes over a period of five
years for ten American law schools with relatively stable levels of selectivity. First, it is
demonstrated that grade inflation is observed among law school applicants in the
dataset over time. This movement towards a more lopsided grade distribution is not
explained by an overall improvement in the schools’ applicant pools. Even if one
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0968-4883.htm
QAE
16,3
224
Received 21 September 2007
Revised January 2008
Accepted March 2008
Quality Assurance in Education
Vol. 16 No. 3, 2008
pp. 224-235
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0968-4883
DOI 10.1108/09684880810886240
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