How should we handle student course grades of Fail, Incomplete, or Withdraw?

Generally, we have found that at most institutions failing grades, such as F or E, are calculated into the students' grade point average and are equivalent to zero grade/quality points; and Incomplete or Withdraw grades, such as I or W, are not incorporated into the GPA calculation. If this is true for your school, then you should include students who have received any (or all) of these grades.

Note that prior to conducting your first ACES study that includes course grades in the analysis, you will be asked to supply your institution’s comprehensive grading scale in the ACES system. This will involve mapping each letter grade that you assign to student performance to their corresponding numeric value or in the case of a grade like W for Withdraw, you would indicate “No Value.” The system will smoothly guide you through this process but it’s important that you are comprehensive and not forget to include grades that may have unusual characters like asterisks (e.g., A*, B+H for special honors course grades, or TA for an A in a transfer course).