A Construct Validation of Faculty Orientations Toward Grading: Comparative Data From Three Institutions

Abstract

This investigation added to the construct validation of four faculty attitudes about grading. Three of these attitudes followed Thorndike's (1969) theory of grading and represented separate orientations toward grading: the criterion-referenced, the norm-referenced, and the self-referenced attitudes. The fourth attitude was concerned with an overall evaluation of the usefulness and value of grading (positive vs. negative). Faculty members from three dissimilar institutions of higher education were compared with respect to these four attitudes. One institution was a large, state university; another was a small, private, four-year college; and the last was an urban community college which has a large proportion of minority students. Approximately 50% of the undergraduate instructors from each of the institutions completed the surveys. The results followed anticipated patterns. University faculty were more norm-referenced than the other two faculties. The community college faculty strongly espoused the self-referenced perspective. Unanticipatedly, the four-year college faculty were least favorable overall about grading, perhaps because they did not strongly endorse any of the orientations. Explanations for these findings were advanced.