What Makes the Grade? Faculty and Student Perceptions

Abstract

This study extended the work of White and Dunlap (1999) by quantifying faculty views regarding the relative effects performance and effort should have on final grades and by comparing faculty views with student views to assess their similarity. Survey results of 159 students and 59 faculty indicated that students believed effort should influence grades significantly more than did faculty. Differences existed when measuring performance and effort as (a) a percentage of a final course grade and (b) letter grades assigned in different course types. In addition, faculty and students differed significantly in the number of hours they designated as defining superior effort. Discussion of results considers the potential impact discrepancies can have on faculty and student relations, student learning, and student evaluation of teaching.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Adams

J. B.

(2002, April). Faculty and student perceptions of effort and performance's relative contribution to grades. Paper presented at the 16th annual Conference on Undergraduate Teaching of Psychology, Ellenville, NY.

Davis

B. G.

(1993). Tools for teaching. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Friedman

S. J.

Manley

(1992). Improving high school grading practices: “Experts” vs. practitioners. NASSP Bulletin, 76(544), 100–104.

Gaultney

J. F.

Cann

(2001). Grade expectations. Teaching of Psychology, 28, 84–87.

Geisinger

K. F.

Rabinowitz

(1980). Individual differences among college faculty in grading. Journal of Instructional Psychology, 7, 20–27.

Goulden

N. R.

Griffin

C. J. G.

(1997). Comparison of university faculty and student beliefs about the meaning of grades. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 31, 27–37.

Howley

Kusimo

P. S.

Parrott

(2001). Grading and the ethos of effort. Learning Environments Research, 3, 229–246.

Johnson

V. E.

(2003). Grade inflation: A crisis in college education. New York: Springer-Verlag.

Mansfield

H. C.

(2001, April 6). Grade inflation: It's time to face the facts [Electronic version]. The Chronicle for Higher Education, p. B24.

10.

Olson

G. H.

(1989, March). On the validity of performance grades: The relationship between teacher-assigned grades and standard measures of subject matter acquisition. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Council on Measurement in Education, San Francisco. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED 307 290).

11.

Stiggins

R. J.

Frisbie

D. A.

Griswold

P. A.

(1989). Inside high school grading practices: Building a research agenda. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, 8(2), 5–14.

12.

News

U.S.

& World Report. (2001, September 17). America's Best Colleges, 131, 106–116.

13.

White

Dunlap

(1999, March). Student perceptions of the contribution of effort and performance in course grades. Paper presented at the 13th annual Conference on Undergraduate Teaching of Psychology, Ellenville, NY.