Grades are not comparable across schools in Sweden, says researcher

This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Grades from compulsory school determine which pupils are accepted into popular upper secondary programs. A new thesis from Uppsala University shows that pupils at for-profit independent schools have, on average, higher grades than would statistically be expected given their backgrounds.

The findings suggest that grading is more generous in independent schools and that the differences in grades may give pupils from high-income households a greater advantage in the competition for places at upper secondary school, at the expense of other pupils. Grades play a central role in the Swedish education system. Pupils compete for places at upper secondary school on the basis of merit ratings set by teachers at different schools.

For the selection process to be fair, the same grade must therefore have roughly the same meaning regardless of where it was awarded. This issue has received increasing attention in recent years. Average grades in Sweden have risen, at the same time as growth in external measures of attainment has, at times, been considerably weaker.

"If grades are to be used to rank pupils, we must be able to trust that they are comparable. My research shows that for-profit independent schools achieve above-average grades; in other words, the schools' average grades are higher than would statistically be expected given the pupils' backgrounds and local circumstances," says Tommie Rappe Petersson, Ph.D. student at the Department of Education, Uppsala University. In his new thesis, "Grades in the School Market," Rappe Petersson examines final grades in Swedish compulsory schools over the period 1998–2022.

Using data from Swedish registers, he tracks trends in school grades over more than two decades and compares pupil groups, municipal schools and different types of independent schools. He also investigates how grades are linked to the proportion of pupils in the municipality who attend independent schools. The results show that the link between parents' level of education and pupils' final grades has become stronger over time.

The correlation is also consistently strongest in municipalities where independent schools account for a larger part of local school provision. "School has a compensatory task. Among other things, this involves supporting pupils from homes where there is less of a tradition of studying, so that they have a good chance of succeeding in their studies.