Measures of academic performanceSch

Measures of academic performance
Schools provided participating students’ transcripts. Ten
schools coded students’ performance on a five-letter
grading scale (A, B, C, D, F), whereas three assigned “no
credit” (NC) in place of Ds and Fs. To numerically transform
letter grades for analysis, we always coded A, B, and
C as 4, 3, and 2, respectively. Because there was no single
a priori basis by which to code D, F, and NC, we used
three schemes: D = 1, F = 0, and NC = missing; D = 1, F =
1, and NC = 1 (because they are all unsatisfactory); or F =
0, D = 1, and NC = 1 (because D and NC are immediately
below C). The current results are presented using the
final coding scheme because it (a) retained all data
(unlike the first scheme) and (b) distinguished between F
and D (unlike the second scheme); however, all three
coding methods provided comparable results. We also
created a dichotomous measure of unsatisfactory progress,
with grades of D, F, NC, and incomplete (I) marked
as unsatisfactory and grades of A, B, C, pass (P), and
credit (CR) marked as satisfactory