Grade Expectations

By Gayle Golden

It's the 10th week of classes -- a time students often ask more urgently about grades.

For some, bureaucracy may prompt the question. This week is the last chance to drop classes without without the extra step of petitioning the college.  While that discussion may bring angst and maybe tears, most instructors have given students enough feedback by this time to ensure a well-grounded decision.

If you haven't, please make sure you do.

The 10th week is also a chance for us to reflect on what the ABCs of grading really mean for student learning. After all, we're two thirds through our courses. Have we applied the right grading standards?  What do those letter grades really mean? Do they help or hinder a student's progress? Do we need to care about the grade-point spread in our classes? Most of all, as we labor through the weekends making our marks, how are we using the grading process to enhance student learning?

These are giant questions, and probably too existential for a blog post. For now, I'll do what I can to discuss grading strategies, with the help of some HSJMC instructors. But first let's start with some nitty gritty grading matters.

Your grading position
As we discussed early on, it was important for you to outline your grading policies in your syllabi. This generally should follow the university's grading policy, although the policy allows some degree of instructor leeway in some areas.

Your grading policy is a contract with students, which they'll take seriously, particularly at the end of the semester when the final grade appears on their transcript.  So it's important to abide by the rules you put down. Yet we're human. Sometimes assignments don't turn out exactly as planned. Students might need more tries mastering skills. The course assessments might not add up as you hoped. Your rubrics might require some tweaking. What to do?

If at this point you don't feel confident your syllabi reflects a clear justification for the grading you're doing,  you can always clarify your position through written notices tied to specific assignments. Just be careful not to swing too much from the standards you set at the start. If you think your grading standards have been too low, you can realign some expectations if you spend time explaining those revisions and how they apply to any remaining assignments.  You certainly can't go back and make changes to assignments already graded. Likewise, if you believe your standards have been too high, don't regrade anything, but it's always helpful to offer extra credit for motivated students to make up points.

When it comes to the actual act of grading, and tying it to student learning, the devil is in the details. Much depends on the assignment, the nature and size of the class and the style of the instructor. Just ask a few HSJMC professors, as I did.

The rubric rules
Assistant Professor Valerie Belair-Gagnon spends a lot of class time explaining the phases of a key multimedia assignment to the 162 students enrolled in her New Media and Culture class, 70 percent of whom are not HSJMC majors. (Teaching assistants help with that large class, of course.)

Valerie Belair-Gagnon

For the writing portion of that assignment, she offers a detailed rubric that outlines what is excellent, good, fair and poor work, with explanations under each category related to accuracy, development, audience, organization, spelling and grammar. She also spends time in class showing examples and how those would be graded. All that is just part of the step-by-step way she takes students through the all aspects of the assignment.

The approach is highly structured. And it's certainly tied to the grades students ultimately get, she says. But to her, the structure is about more than just grades: It's a valuable as a way of giving feedback to a large class. "I think of the steps for the creative project and case study as a coaching activity," she says. "In large classes, it is often difficult to give a lot of feedback. To have the assignment broken down in steps allow us to give feedback and take their project to the next level."

Grading is an opportunity
Other instructors have a less formal approach to rubrics and grading, but in the end the relationship between grading and learning is the same -- integral.

"Grading is seen as a chore, and it frequently is," says Assistant Professor Christopher Terry, who teaches Mass Communication Law, "but it is really an opportunity to expand the learning process. I would suggest that it can't be done easily with a Scantron sheet."

Chris Terry

Terry is a fiercely practical professor who believes students should be tested by applying the conceptual knowledge they've gained to hypothetical situations, even in practical skills classes. No multiple choice for him. He has designed tests for broadcast journalism courses that ask students to think themselves through a hypothetical microphone problem in the field. One of his recent law exams asked students to reflect on case law related to a hypothetical government-imposed restriction on hoodies at a protest event.  "I want students to think, to use/manipulate the course content, not just be able to barf back up the things I said in class without context or meaning," he says.

Before his law exam, Terry tells students the legal tests they need to apply. The grading, then, is based on his judgment of how well they do that. Simple enough. But the grade is never the end of discussion. The real learning takes place in the post-exam feedback.  "They understand the expectations ahead of time," he says. "But during the post-exam discussion, we go through the legal tests step by step as part of a larger discussion about the concepts in class."

Grading is an invitation
Associate Professor Kenneth O. Doyle, who teaches undergraduates Advertising in Society, says grades are never the point when he hands back tests or papers.

Ken Doyle

"I never, ever just give a grade," Doyle says. Instead, he'll make a point of speaking to the class in a general way about why some papers or tests may have gotten higher or lower scores. "It's almost always critical thinking, making distinctions and elaborating," he says.

Doyle sees the grading process as a way for students to gauge their progress and prepare for to change their learning strategies. At the midterm, he reminds students there's still time to move up -- or down, for that matter. "I invite them all, especially the students who got scores lower than they'd like, to come in and talk to me or email (because some are shy)." He also says he's a firm believer in rewarding students for their achievement, or lack thereof, regardless of how their peers performed.  "I never 'grade on the curve,'" he says. "I tell students if they do great, they all get A. If they do lousy, they get a lousy grade. I rarely get complaints."

On passing and failing
Many adjunct instructors are often confused about whether it's "bad to give too many As" even if students are doing exemplary work. The fact is HSJMC students go through a secondary admissions process at the university, so they tend to have high grade achievement, especially as advance through their courses. It's not unusual to find some classes with many high-performing students.  Likewise, though, you should not see your job as giving out good grades to students who fail to meet the course standards or don't do the work. Your job is not to pass them. Your job is to be sure they have an opportunity to learn the material and to be accountable for demonstrating that.

Some instructors run into students who ask for higher grades toward the end of the term because of scholarship requirements or other pressures. While those are real for the student, it's important you stay true to your grading policy. Certainly don't extend extra credit options to one student unless you extend those options to all. And keep in mind the university's Student Development Outcomes include being responsible and accountable for their actions.  It's often hard to watch students struggle through the consequences of decisions they made earlier in the semester, especially if that means they can't pass the class or get a grade they want; but it's not usually in their best interest to let those consequences slide.

Incompletes...not so fast

Rebecca Rassier

As you move toward the final part of the semester, you might have a student who requests an Incomplete grade. Under current policy, that means the student would have up to a year to complete the course work, although you can set the deadline whenever you want via a contract you create with the student. (And regardless of the deadline, you should always create a contract for Incompletes.)

While it's tempting to offer and "I" for a student who is facing difficulty, it's best to consult the university's policy and do so only when circumstances are truly beyond the student's control -- such as a serious medical condition. If you are thinking about offering an "I," it's best to talk with the Rebecca Rassier, the associate director of student services, before you make any promises. She can route you to the right person to give you the best counsel.

If you have a thought about grading, post it below. And as usual, if you have a question or a comment for ProActive Teaching, please post one below or email me at ggolden@umn.edu.