College grades play important educational and social roles (Milton, Pollio, and Eison, 1986; Walvoord and Anderson, 1998). What is not well understood are the types of problems that exist in college grading practices. Conversations about grade inflation in higher education are often based on sparse anecdotal evidence and charged with value judgments and opinions (Adelman, 2001; Hu, 2003). Participants may speak to the problem of grade inflation and use the same words; however, they may inadvertently be using the same language to describe different phenomena. Therefore, the first purpose of this report is to delineate a conceptual framework to help understand various grading problems in college. Without a shared frame of reference, conversations about grade inflation are likely to be unproductive and possibly counterproductive. Second, this report summarizes empirical evidence about college grades and grading practices through the use of the proposed conceptual framework. Third, this report aims to reconcile the conflicting arguments about college grades. The underlying forces responsible for the grading problem are also identified. Last, the emerging practices and innovative proposals used to address the varied problems surrounding grade inflation are discussed. (Contains 8 figures and 7 tables.)