Graded Achievement, Tested Achievement, and Validity

Abstract

Twenty-eight studies of grades, over a century, were reviewed using the argument-based approach to validity suggested by Kane as a theoretical framework. The review draws conclusions about the meaning of graded achievement, its relation to tested achievement, and changes in the construct of graded achievement over time. Graded achievement reflects students' broad accomplishment of classroom and school learning goals, including goals about how to learn. Both high school and elementary grades contain information about school achievement that includes being socialized into the way learning happens in classrooms. Graded achievement reflects specific course learning goals and therefore varies according to subject; academic course grades align more closely with tested achievement than noncore course grades. Graded achievement also reflects individual teachers' grading practices and emphases about what is important to learn. Report card grades can be reliable and valid measures of graded achievement, but may not be depending on individual teachers' grading practices.

Acknowledgments

An earlier version of this article was presented at the 2013 annual meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, San Francisco. I thank two anonymous reviewers and the editor for their helpful comments.

Studies of Report Card Grades or Marks

Note. An asterisk marks two publications by the same author(s) using the same data, treated as one study in this paper's analysis.