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Grading Criteria

Grading is a complex process which provides students with useful feedback and should accurately reflect their work in a particular course. However, there will be times when you, as a TA, feel challenged about a grade. Grading criteria are established by the professor and should make it faster and easier for you to provide students with intellectually useful feedback. Thus, it is important that you follow it for grading student assignments. It should also be clear to students that you are not responsible for establishing the grading system and all questions related to grading methods should be directed to the faculty instructor. To avoid considerable grading controversy, TAs should be familiar with the professor’s grading philosophy. During the first class, TAs should be able to answer students’ questions about the grading policies and clarify how grades are affected by attendance, participation, and missed deadlines. Grading is typically faster and easier for “objective” tests with clearly defined points for each question. With written exams or papers, however, the process is more complex. Before you start assigning grades for written assignments, you should quickly go through all the exams or papers and organize them into the range of grades. As you grade each assignment, use the grading criteria to guide you in making grading decisions and in writing comments on the students’ work. It is important that you provide specific comments and explain your grading decisions constructively. Finally, studies have shown that graders tend to be harder on papers or exams when they are tired, so it is important to take breaks, especially when grading many assignments. 

Avoiding Potential Problems

Keep Evaluating Consistent with the Curriculum:

Grades should reflect the student’s work in a particular course. This means that a student’s personality, outside interests, or general academic ability should not affect your grading. This is particularly important when grades are decided on a curve, because one student’s performance can affect the relative grades of all the others in the class. Therefore, evaluation should only be based on what has been taught and what material has been covered.

Grading Blind: 

Whether or not you choose to grade blind is your own decision, but many teachers feel that grading blind ensures grader objectivity. Whatever grade you give, every student deserves a review of your decision if she or he desires. The terms of that review should be clear. You should never change a student’s grade because of their need (to graduate, to get honors, get into graduate school, etc.), but only because of mistaken evaluation or clerical error. If you and a student cannot reach a resolution in a grading dispute, get a second opinion. Refer the student to another TA assigned to the course, if there is one, or to the professor in charge. 

 Consistency Across the Semester: 

Some TAs like to grade “easy” for first assignments, feeling that lower grades will act as a disincentive or discouragement to students. Others prefer to set high standards initially and offer students the incentive to improve as the semester progresses. Either of these methods, however, can lead to complaints about students’ final grades, since students use each successive grade as an indication of where they will stand in the course at the end. Maintaining consistency across the semester will help you avoid potential problems and complaints from the students. If the faculty supervisor decides to weigh the first assignment less heavily in the overall calculation of grades or use a different grading system, it is essential to be clear about it with the students. 

Incompletes and Extension: 

The conditions under which incompletes or extensions will be granted should be announced early in the semester by the professor. These decisions are governed by faculty rules and typically include consideration of the student’s needs and of the instructor’s ability to grade papers or give exams later. The professor in charge of the course is responsible for making a final decision on this matter. If someone in your class often experiences this problem with the course assignments, you should advise them to talk with a peer mentor, their dean, or the Director of Academic Support Services for a referral to the appropriate academic support service. 

Grading Philosophies and Options 

The approaches summarized below should clarify grading options which are provided to the TAs by the professor: 

Curving 

Curving is one of the most common grading systems in colleges and universities. When assignments are graded on a curve, the best and worst work within each individual class is used to determine the range of grades. Although most professors do maintain a threshold of minimum standards, grades are decided more on the individual class’s performance and less on predetermined criteria. Curving has been criticized for causing grade inflation and for invalidating grades as a consistent and reliable measure. On the other hand, it does check any ambiguities or mistakes made in constructing students’ assignments or tests. If the professor fails to be clear about what is expected, or designs assignments that are inconsistent with what has been taught, the students will not suffer for the mistakes. 

Criteria or Absolute Standards Grading

Absolute standards grading is an opposite to curving approach. When grading on a curve, evaluation criteria are based on students’ actual work and are not determined until after that work is completed. Absolute standards grading, on the other hand, is based on the faculty’s expectations for student performance. Grades are determined by analyzing what has been taught to predict what students should have learned. Evaluation criteria are then determined before review of the students’ work or grading begins. 

Many educators believe that this grading option can reduce grade inflation and increase the reliability of grades across classrooms and institutions. On the other hand, absolute standards grading suffers from its own set of biases, since the evaluative criteria of different educators across classrooms and institutions is also likely to be inconsistent. 

Contract Grading

In contract grading teachers and students design a contract that specifies what work students will do to achieve a given grade. The emphasis is generally on the amount and not the quality of work each student does. Advocates of contract grading stress the educational importance of involving students in the process of evaluation. They also emphasize that this is the only grading system in which competition among students is minimized, with the emphasis on each individual student’s process of learning. This grading practice is not widely used at Bryn Mawr, as it can be a source of considerable controversy. 

Confidentiality and Privacy

Confidentiality and privacy are highly valued by Bryn Mawr students. This means that your sensitivity and consideration as a TA will be greatly appreciated by your students. To maintain confidentiality of student grades and performances, TAs should: 

• Never publicly post grades (even in disguised form) or identify strong or weak performances. 

• Hand back work in such a way that grades are not visible to other students. 

• Make sure that difficult conversations are held where they cannot be overheard. 

• Refrain from discussing one student’s work or difficulties with another. 

• Consider posting an overall grade distribution for students who wish to compare their academic standing in the course. 

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) requires all faculty, TAs, and staff at Bryn Mawr to maintain the confidentiality of any student academic records in their possession, including course schedules and grades. FERPA guidelines allow for the exchange of information among college faculty and staff but do not permit the release of a student’s information to individuals outside the college without their written permission. If you have any questions about FERPA or seek advice when you receive requests for information about a student, please contact the Registrar Office (registrar@brynmawr.edu) or the Undergraduate Dean’s Office (deansoffice@brynmawr.edu). 

The Honor Code

Bryn Mawr is known for its Honor Code, which governs the academic and social behavior life of all students. In general, the academic Honor Code means that faculty and TAs can and do treat students with confidence in their academic integrity while recognizing that these standards are not always self-evident. More information about the Honor Code can be found in the Undergraduate Student Handbook. 

If you suspect a violation of the Honor Code, do not hesitate to consult with the faculty instructor you assist, dean, or faculty member of the Honor Board. Typically, the first suggestion would be for you to meet with the student and share your concern about their work. If after the meeting you continue to feel that there may have been a violation, the student should be asked to report themselves to the Honor Board. Unlike in most other schools, faculty members at Bryn Mawr do not determine whether violations have occurred, nor do they impose penalties for them. The Honor Board, comprised of both faculty members and students, serves as an objective “third party” to mediate infractions and to establish an appropriate penalty.