Key findings
- The average US high school GPA rose from 2.68 in 1990 to 3.00 in 2009, according to the NCES High School Transcript Study — roughly from a B-minus to a B on a 4.0 scale.
- It reached 3.11 in 2019, according to the Hechinger Report’s 2022 account of the 2019 transcript study. That is +0.43 points in 29 years.
- Test scores did not follow. In ACT’s study of 4.4 million graduates, average GPA rose from 3.22 to 3.39 (classes of 2010 to 2021) while the average ACT Composite fell from 21.0 to 20.3.
- NAEP agrees: while GPA climbed from 2.68 to 3.0, 12th-grade NAEP math stayed between 305 and 307 and reading between 283 and 290 (1990–2012).
- What it means: a GPA carries less information than it used to, so test scores, course rigor and class context matter more when you read one.
- Data: free CSV download, CC BY 4.0.
A 3.5 GPA sounds like the same achievement in every decade. The national data says otherwise. This page collects the most solid figures we could source on how average high school grades in the US have changed since 1990, and sets them next to two measures that did not rise with them: ACT scores and NAEP.
Methodology
We used three sources and kept their numbers separate.
- NCES High School Transcript Study (HSTS). The National Center for Education Statistics collects actual transcripts from a national sample of graduates. Our 1990–2009 values come from Figure 8 of America’s High School Graduates (NCES 2011-462). HSTS GPA uses a 4-point scale (A = 4 to F = 0), is weighted by course credits, and is not adjusted for AP, IB or honors. NCES notes it does not standardize for differences in grading practices.
- 2019 figure. The 3.11 average for 2019 comes from the 2019 HSTS, but we could only confirm it through one news source: Jill Barshay’s May 16, 2022 article in the Hechinger Report. We label it that way throughout.
- ACT Research Report R2134 (Sanchez and Moore, May 2022). It tracks 4,393,119 ACT-tested graduates from 4,783 public schools, classes of 2010 to 2021. Its GPAs are self-reported by students, which ACT says correlate highly with transcript GPAs. Because they come from a different population (ACT takers) and method, they are not comparable with HSTS averages.
Average high school GPA, 1990–2019
| Year | Average GPA (4.0 scale) | Change since 1990 | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 2.68 | — | NCES HSTS (NCES 2011-462, Figure 8) |
| 1994 | 2.79 | +0.11 | NCES HSTS (NCES 2011-462, Figure 8) |
| 1998 | 2.90 | +0.22 | NCES HSTS (NCES 2011-462, Figure 8) |
| 2000 | 2.94 | +0.26 | NCES HSTS (NCES 2011-462, Figure 8) |
| 2005 | 2.98 | +0.30 | NCES HSTS (NCES 2011-462, Figure 8) |
| 2009 | 3.00 | +0.32 | NCES HSTS (NCES 2011-462, Figure 8) |
| 2019 | 3.11 | +0.43 | NCES HSTS 2019 as reported by the Hechinger Report (2022) |
Download the table as CSV (7 rows, UTF-8; columns: year, avg_gpa, change_since_1990, source, source_url).
The core-academic GPA (English, math, science and social studies only) rose the same amount over the NCES period, from 2.47 in 1990 to 2.79 in 2009. The rise was not limited to one group: female graduates went from 2.77 to 3.10 and male graduates from 2.59 to 2.90, and all four racial and ethnic groups NCES reports had higher GPAs in 2009 than in 1990.
The trend in one chart
The first chart shows each average on the full 0–4 scale, so the bars are honest about size. The second shows only the rise since 1990, which makes the pace easier to see.
Rise in average GPA since 1990 (GPA points)
Source: NCES 2011-462, Figure 8 (1990–2009); 2019 via the Hechinger Report (shown in red). Second chart scaled to 0.5 points.
The pace was not even. From 1990 to 2009, the average rose 0.32 points, about 0.017 a year. NCES found no increase from 2005 to 2009 (2.98 to 3.00). From 2009 to 2019 it rose 0.11, about 0.011 a year. Over the full 29 years that is 0.43 points, or roughly 0.015 a year (our arithmetic).
Grades went up; ACT scores went down
ACT’s 2022 study is the clearest recent evidence that rising grades are not matched by rising achievement.
| Measure (ACT-tested graduates) | Class of 2010 | Class of 2021 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average self-reported high school GPA | 3.22 | 3.39 | +0.17 |
| GPA adjusted for student and school characteristics | 3.17 | 3.36 | +0.19 |
| Average ACT Composite (1–36) | 21.0 | 20.3 | −0.7 |
Source: ACT Research Report R2134 (2022).
In percentage terms, average GPA rose about 5.3% (0.17 ÷ 3.22) while the average ACT Composite fell about 3.3% (0.7 ÷ 21.0), our arithmetic. ACT found little change from 2010 to 2016; then the rise sped up. Average GPA was 0.10 standard deviations above its 2010 level in 2018 and 0.29 above it in 2021. ACT says the inflation rate increased substantially in 2020 and 2021, but that attributing this directly to COVID-19 “is difficult.”
Adjusting for who took the test did not make the rise go away: the adjusted GPA grew from 3.17 to 3.36. The Hechinger Report, summarizing ACT’s data, gives two concrete comparisons. A student with a 3.0 GPA was likely to score 19 on the ACT in 2010 but 15 in 2021, and students scoring 25 averaged a 3.5 GPA in 2010 but 3.7 in 2021. The same article reports that test-takers with an A average outnumbered those with a B average after 2016.
What NAEP shows
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), the federal test given to samples of students, is the best check that doesn’t depend on who chooses to take a college-entrance exam. ACT’s report sets the two side by side:
| Period | Average HS GPA (NCES HSTS) | NAEP 12th-grade math | NAEP 12th-grade reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 → 2009 (GPA); 1990–2012 (NAEP) | 2.68 → 3.00 | 305–307 | 283–290 |
Source: ACT Research Report R2134, Figure 1 and p. 4.
Over two decades, GPAs rose by about a third of a letter grade while 12th-grade NAEP math moved within a two-point band. The Hechinger Report adds that NAEP 12th-grade math scores have declined alongside ACT scores in recent years, without giving figures, and the Monitoring the Future survey (2024) likewise found students’ grades rising while standardized test performance fell from 2021 to 2023.
Not every rise is inflation
Some of the increase may reflect students taking harder classes. ACT’s report cites work by Hurwitz and Lee (2018) among studies arguing that part of the GPA rise reflects bonus points for advanced coursework. HSTS figures don’t add weighting for AP or honors, though, and the core-academic GPA rose as much as the overall GPA.
Inflation varies by school. Research cited by ACT (Gershenson, 2020; Tyner and Gershenson, 2020) suggests grade inflation varies with school affluence, and the Hechinger Report describes a 2017 College Board researcher’s study finding it was worse at wealthier schools. Studies detecting grade inflation date back to at least the 1970s, according to the same report.
What it means for students and parents
A GPA tells you less on its own than it did in 1990. Some practical consequences:
- Read a GPA against today’s average, not your own memory. A 3.0 was 0.32 points above the 1990 national average and is 0.11 below the 2019 figure. Our GPA scale and converter shows what a given GPA means as a percent and letter.
- Know which GPA you’re looking at. If half of a student’s classes carry a 1-point AP or honors bonus, the weighted GPA is 0.5 higher than the unweighted one (our arithmetic). The high school GPA calculator shows both, and the cumulative GPA calculator adds a new semester to an existing average.
- Check how your school converts percents to letters. Schools use different percent-to-letter cutoffs, so the same percent can map to different letters; the grading scale converter compares common scales.
- Expect test scores and course rigor to carry weight. When most applicants have high grades, other evidence separates them. If you’re taking the ACT, the ACT score calculator turns practice answers into an estimated score.
Worked example. Maya and her father both finished high school with a 3.2 GPA, he in 1990 and she in 2019. Against the national average, his 3.2 was 0.52 points above (3.20 − 2.68); hers is 0.09 above (3.20 − 3.11). Same number, very different position.
Limitations
- The 2019 value has a single news source. We could not read the 3.11 figure in an NCES publication and cite it via the Hechinger Report. Treat it as reported, not as confirmed against NCES.
- There are gaps. The NCES series has no points between 2009 and 2019, so the shape of the trend in that decade is unknown.
- HSTS and ACT measure different things. HSTS uses transcripts from a national sample of graduates; ACT uses self-reported GPAs from students who took the ACT. Don’t splice the two series together.
- Unweighted vs. weighted. HSTS averages are not adjusted for AP, IB or honors. Weighted school GPAs will usually be higher.
- NAEP figures are ranges as presented in ACT’s report, not year-by-year values.
License and how to cite this page
The table and CSV are free to reuse under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0): share and adapt them for any purpose, including commercially, as long as you credit The Homework Site and link to this page. Please also cite the original NCES, ACT and Hechinger Report sources.
Cite this page: The Homework Site. (2026, October 14). Grade Inflation in US High Schools: Average GPA 1990–2019 and What It Means. https://thehomeworksite.com/research/grade-inflation/
Sources
- National Center for Education Statistics (2011). America’s High School Graduates: Results of the 2009 NAEP High School Transcript Study (NCES 2011-462), Figure 8, Figure 22 and p. 3. PDF
- Barshay, J. (2022, May 16). Proof Points column on new evidence of high school grade inflation. The Hechinger Report. hechingerreport.org (2019 HSTS figure; summary of ACT findings). NCES 2019 HSTS report: nationsreportcard.gov/hstsreport
- Sanchez, E. and Moore, R. (2022). Grade Inflation Continues to Grow in the Past Decade. ACT Research Report R2134. PDF
- Monitoring the Future (2024), via EBSCO Research Starters. ebsco.com
Checked October 14, 2026. If you spot an error, tell us and we will correct it.