Instructor grading practices vary extremely, with some instructors awarding no honor grades and others awarding honor grades to over half their students¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 1917 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Of 388 grades one instructor gave none the value of H, while another gave H to fifty-one per cent of 165 grades and M to thirty-four per cent. → J. L. Zerbe 1917 q2 i? Another instructor gave fifty-seven per cent of 136 grades below passing, while another gave less than one per cent below passing and eighty per cent the grade C. → J. L. Zerbe 1917 (2)

Evidence¶

J. L. Zerbe 1917¶

J. L. Zerbe. (1917). Distribution of Grades. The Journal of Educational Psychology, VIII(10), 575-588. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0074694

q2 · i? · associational · r1

Descriptive analysis of grade records by individual instructors at the School of Applied Industries, presented in Plate III. The article reports that one instructor gave no H grades among 388 grades while another gave "the "H" grade to fifty-one per cent, of the 165 grades he assigned."

"Of the 388 grades given by one instructor not one grade is accorded the value of "H," while another instructor in another subject gave the "H" grade to fifty-one per cent, of the 165 grades he assigned, and the "M" grade to thirty-four."

J. L. Zerbe 1917 (2)¶

J. L. Zerbe. (1917). Distribution of Grades. The Journal of Educational Psychology, VIII(10), 575-588. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0074694

q2 · i? · associational · r1

Continuation of the Plate III instructor-level analysis of assigned grades. The article contrasts instructors in the same institution: one gave "fifty-seven per cent, are below passing" of 136 grades, another gave under one per cent below passing with eighty per cent graded C.

"Of 136 grades given by another instructor fifty-seven per cent, are below passing, while of 165 grades granted by another instructor less than one per cent, is below passing, not one as high as "H" and eighty per cent, are given the grade "C.""

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Most evaluators rated consistently, but about 3 percent were muted and 5 percent erratic, and about 10 percent of a sampled subset were extremely severe or lenient — a broader claim this one bears on
• Instructor-confirmed grading errors occurred at roughly 0.02–0.04% of rubric line items across the term — related
• Circulating a report urging uniform grade distribution produced little or no change in instructors' grading practices — related
• Academic subjects were graded to a markedly higher standard than shop subjects, with far larger shares of grades below passing — related