Development of the Faculty Beliefs about Grades Inventory

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to report on the development of a new instrument, the Faculty Beliefs About Grades Inventory (FBGI). The instrument contains three scales. The first scale measures college faculty members' attitudes toward norm- and criterion-referenced grading. The second and third scales measure attitudes toward the sorting and selection function of grades. Two hundred forty-three faculty members from two research universities in the Midwest completed the FBGI. Results showed scores for two scales that had satisfactory internal consistency reliabilities (.86 and .83); reliability for scores on the third scale was only .66. The scale measuring attitudes toward norm- and criterion-referenced grading correlated from .52 to .69, with self-reported use of norm- and criterion-referenced grading methods. Although a more favorable attitude toward norm-referenced grading was associated with a belief in the sorting and selection function of grades (r = .39 between the first two scales), results suggested these are two conceptually distinct constructs.