HSGPAs have a strong, consistent relationship with college graduation that is larger than school effects, while ACT scores have a weak relationship smaller than high school effects with slopes varying by school¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · associationalr?·q2
Currency · newest study 2020 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
Subclaims¶
Reading the evidence codes
q is the design tier, i the impact, n the sample, and the kind with its r
the rigour judged within that kind: what each code means.
This claim: no standardized effect is recorded in observations/ for it yet, so no benchmark reading is possible.
q2 i? The relationship of HSGPAs with college graduation is strong and consistent and larger than school effects. → Allensworth 2020
q2 i? The relationship of ACT scores with college graduation is weak, smaller than high school effects, and its slope varies by high school. → Allensworth 2020
Evidence¶
Allensworth 2020¶
Allensworth, E. M., & Clark, K. (2020). High school GPAs and ACT scores as predictors of college completion: Examining assumptions about consistency across high schools. Educational Researcher, 49(3), 198-211. doi:10.3102/0013189x20902110 https://consortium.uchicago.edu/publications/high-school-GPAs-and-ACT-scores-as-predictors-of-college-completion-er-article
q2 · i? · associational · r?
The study's overview contrasts the two measures: "the relationship of HSGPAs with college graduation is strong and consistent and larger than school effects," whereas the ACT relationship is weak with school-varying slopes. No effect sizes are printed on this page.
"Yet, the relationship of HSGPAs with college graduation is strong and consistent and larger than school effects. In contrast, the relationship of ACT scores with college graduation is weak and smaller than high school effects, and the slope of the relationship varies by high school."
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- ACT scores show a weak relationship with college graduation, with slope variation across high schools larger than the average signal — possibly the same claim (merge candidate)
- Both HSGPA and ACT scores leave large high school effects on college graduation unexplained, which the study recommends measuring and publishing directly — related
- The linear slope of the HSGPA–college graduation relationship does not vary significantly across high schools, so HSGPA provides a consistent signal across schools — a narrower finding that bears on this claim
- HSGPA has a strong, positive relationship with college graduation that does not vary significantly in its linear slope across high schools — related
- ACT scores weakly predict college graduation, and the school-level variance in the ACT slope (0.192) exceeds the average slope (0.129), so school effects introduce more noise than the ACT signal — related
- Adding ACT scores to models with HSGPA contributes little to the prediction of college graduation and does not reduce between-school variability — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
hsgpa-strong-act-weak-college-graduation-predictors |
title |
HSGPAs have a strong, consistent relationship with college graduation that is larger than school effects, while ACT scores have a weak relationship smaller than high school effects with slopes varying by school |
description |
HSGPAs have a strong, consistent relationship with college graduation that is larger than school effects, while ACT scores have a weak relationship smaller than high school effects with slopes varying by school |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2020 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-09 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — allensworth-2020 |
Frontmatter is the page's machine-readable record — see the Schema & Guide.