IOWA CITY, Iowa — The “COVID cohort” of students who entered college between 2019 and 2021 were more likely to be placed in developmental or remedial courses based on their high school GPA, according to a study released today by ACT, the mission-driven provider of assessments, research, and work-ready credentials designed to support education and workplace success.

“This is another data point showing that using multiple measures of readiness for course placement decisions is better for students,” ACT CEO Janet Godwin said. “A holistic approach, rather than relying on either high school GPA or test scores alone, aligns with best practices and can lead to a more equitable and effective education journey for students.” The study, Has the Relationship Between College Readiness Measures and Developmental Course Placement Changed in Recent Years?, explored how course placement decisions at one state’s colleges are related to high school GPA and ACT Composite score, and how those relationships have changed over time. The study also determined how students’ general readiness related to developmental course placement and highlighted the differences in likelihood that students of varying GPAs would be placed in developmental courses. Developmental, or remedial, education courses are designed to develop the reading, writing, or math skills of students who are deemed underprepared for college-level courses.

As expected, as GPA increased, the likelihood of developmental course placement decreased. However, there were substantial differences in the likelihood of developmental course placement for students with the same GPA prior to and after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with students with the same GPA being more likely to be placed in developmental courses after the onset of the pandemic. This was not the case for ACT Composite scores: Increases in ACT Composite scores were associated with a decrease in the likelihood of developmental course placement, with no difference for students before and after the onset of the pandemic.

“The changes that were observed and the relationship between high school GPA and developmental course placement suggest that colleges might be adjusting their interpretation of high school grades due to grade inflation,” said Dr. Edgar I. Sanchez, a lead research scientist at ACT and author of the report. “Colleges seem to be requiring higher and higher GPAs to show the same level of academic preparedness and college readiness. And it seems as though this shift is affecting students with lower high school GPAs more than students with higher high school GPAs, because it is those students who are more likely to be placed in developmental courses.”

Prior ACT research by Dr. Sanchez found that the average high school GPA increased from 3.17 in 2010 to 3.36 in 2021, with particularly rapid and dramatic rises in grade inflation since 2016, especially in mathematics courses. One of the problematic causes of grade inflation is the increasing variation in grading standards across high schools. In the college admissions context, this means that a 4.0 from one school may not indicate the same level of content mastery as a 4.0 from another school. While high school GPA is still an important predictor of future student outcomes, grade inflation reduces its usefulness in evaluating college applicants. Key Findings

• In the entering 2017–2020 college cohorts, the probability of developmental course placement increased each year. This trend continued for the incoming 2021 cohort for students who had a GPA of 3.3 or higher. For students in the 2021 cohort who had a GPA below 3.3, the probability of developmental course placement was lower than that for the 2020 cohort and similar to that for the entering 2019 cohort.
• There were substantial differences in the probabilities of developmental course placement for students with the same GPA across cohorts prior to and after the onset of the pandemic in 2020. This suggests that colleges may have been adjusting their interpretation of GPA due to grade inflation.
• The ACT Composite score was better able to predict developmental course placement in comparison to GPA. On the ACT Composite scale, there was very little difference in the probability of developmental course placement for the cohorts immediately before the onset of the pandemic (the 2018 and 2019 cohorts) and the 2020 and 2021 cohorts after the onset of the pandemic.
• Increases in ACT Composite score were interpreted by colleges as an increase in college course readiness.
• Colleges seem to be interpreting ACT scores as more stable over time for students with higher GPAs, relative to students with low GPAs. In the context of a grade inflation lens, it may be that colleges are more concerned about grade inflation at lower levels of GPA than at higher levels of GPA.

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Contact: Allie Ciaramella; allie.ciaramella@act.org