EVALUATING STUDENT WORK I

em Avaliação da Aprendizagem

Gilberto  Teixeira (D.B.A.)

Philosophy of Grading

In this paper we will discuss why we are evaluating students in the first place. Who is the grade for? What does it mean to get a 'B' versus an 'A'? How can we tell the difference? What is the purpose of grading?  There are several answers:
  • Give students constructive feedback.
  • Rank order their performance.
  • Identify who the best students are (i.e. for graduate/professional schools).
While assigning grades may be enough to tell students how they performed overall (i.e. did they get the right answer; did they complete all the work), they are no so good for providing ongoing feedback.
  • Grades don't actively motivate students.
  • Grades don't actively encourage students.
  • Grades may or may not highlight strengths and weaknesses.
  • Grades do not provide for discussion of material.
  • Grades do not provide methods for improvement.
  • The things listed above fall under the job of the teacher, not the grade.
A teacher can provide feedback in many other ways. Feedback can be verbal (e.g. you could have a conversation with your student) or nonverbal (you could have a facial expression in response to something the student says). You can give the students assignments that will not be graded, and evaluate them in writing. Can you think of any others?
It is best to think of grading as a way to praise strengths and point out weaknesses.  Grading should not just be a catalogue of what the student failed to do. In order to be constructive grading and evaluation should convey to the student what s/he has done well and what needs improvement. It is often a good idea to give students a concrete incentive to actually read your feedback by offering credit for revision -- if you can not offer a complete grade change, perhaps a TA could award at least a few extra points. The portfolio system (in which no grades are fixed until the end of the quarter) is the logical extension of this approach.

Absolute vs. Comparative Grading

Is a 90% an A no matter what or should you grade on a curve? An advantage to an absolute scale is that students might be more likely to study together since it is not a zero-sum game. In a comparative grading system, students are assigned grades on the basis of their relative performance.  The most common system is a grading curve.  An advantage to curves is that it helps you adjust grades based on student performance. It is really hard to write an exam for an absolute grading scale (i.e. what do you do if everyone fails? Was the exam to difficult?). Be aware that neither absolute nor comparative grading systems can determine for you whether students have reached the  appropriate level of mastery of the material.  Ultimately it is up to the teacher to decide whether student really know enough. Thus grading always has a subjective component. Students will feel better about the system if you explain it ahead of time. Ask the workshop participants how they feel about the two different grading standards. It's likely that everyone has some experience with both.

Avoid Grading Bias

Do everything you can to keep your personal feelings about students from biasing your grading (in either direction). If students in your class type their work, read it without looking at the names. If you can't help recognizing their handwriting, you might try grading one question, page, or section at a time across everyone's assignment/exam. Another approach is to trade grading sets with another TA in the same course. Do everything you can to maintain consistency and perspective (is this really a B?). Some graders try to grade all of one section at once for this reason. However, make sure you get started early enough so you can take breaks and don't end up exhaustedly skimming the last few papers.

Grading as a Team Effort

When teaching with multiple TAs it is possible that one TA may grade easier or harder than another.  We highly recommend having a grade-norming meeting with the professor and all TAs before returning at the first assignment. Grad-norming refers to the process of insuring that the TAs and Instructor maintain similar grading criteria across assignments.  Read a few of each other's students' work and if possible, come to a consensus about what sort of work gets what grade. Remember that as a TA, you have the right and the responsibility to make your view heard on individual assignments and overall course grades; TAs have more influence than they might expect. Many professors will defer most grading decisions to the judgment of the TA and will only become involved if there is a disagreement. If the professor is willing to do some of the grading, encourage this! 

Grader's Guilt

Some TAs feel very bad about burdening diligent undergraduates with low grades. They may sometimes grade "on improvement", which seldom works well unless revision is built into the grading system. You can, however, grade on participation by keeping a running tally each class meeting of how often a student contributes, or by looking at student contributions to electronic discussions. 

Continuous Evaluation

Evaluation should happen continually, on a day-to-day basis. Students should get feedback on their responses in class discussions, as well as on papers and tests. Use office hours to give feedback as well.

Keep Students Informed On Their Progress

It is good to give students feedback along the way so they know where they need to improve. This way TAs can avoid delivering surprise grades (lower than expected) to students at the end of the quarter.  There are many ways that you can provide feedback and keep students informed on their learning progress:
  • Hand out periodic grade sheets that show their achievements so far.
  • Give some assignments that you will evaluate but not include in the final grade total, such as sample non-graded quizzes in class or online with automatic scoring.
  • Various possible exercises that involve students explaining concepts to each other or the instructor. 

Clearly Communicate Your Expectations

Rather than simply telling students what assignments they need to complete and their point value, make it clear what facts, ideas, events, points-of-view, they will need to understand throughout the course. 
  • Make sure assignments and expectations are clear. This will make student submissions easier to grade because you have already outlined what you expect. 
  • Model the kind of work you want. Show students samples of past student work or your own made-up examples; work though a sample with them in class. 
  • Have students explain back to you what you are asking for on a given assignment.
  • To check if your written instructions are clear, let someone from a different specialty or department read them.

The Nuts and Bolts of Grading

Before you grade your first assignments check the following:
  • Find out from the department if there are any guidelines or standards about grading.
  • Find out from the instructor or other TAs for your course what should be used as criteria for grading.
  • Lay out your grading criteria before you look at the first paper / project/assignment. 
  • What exactly are you looking for? 
  • Will you be grading the student on the process they went through or just the finished product? 
  • Is getting the problem right as important as making a good case for their answer? 
  • Will you be concerned with grammatical errors and writing style as much as content? 
  • Will there be partial credit for wrong answers to problem sets?
 

Dealing With Student Complaints

You will prevent many complaints if you establish fair policies, explain them clearly from the start, and apply them consistently for everyone all the time.
If a student comes with a grade or other complaint, listen as sympathetically as possible without giving in to pressure or guilt. Ask them to explain what would have justified a higher grade.  Or explain to them exactly why they received the grade you assigned. However, occasionally teachers make mistakes, and if warranted, you can offer to have the professor re-grade the student's work.  Often professors will tell students that re-grading can result in a lower grade as well as a higher one if the professor disagrees with the TAs assessment. 
Regardless of how hard you try to be fair in grading, you may not be able to make everyone happy; no one ever likes a low grade. Treat disgruntled students with continued respect and fairness.  Showing them precisely where they made mistakes and helping them find ways to improve can often turn a discouraged, angry student into one with hope.
Don't give your students the power to get you in trouble. For example, never criticize the instructor on a personal level in front of your students, regardless of any complaints you may have about the instructor yourself. 
If you have been forcefully intimidated or physically threatened by a student, do not hesitate to inform the professor, other TAs, the department, and/ or the campus police.

UCLA Policy On Grading

According to University policy, the instructor in charge of a course is responsible for determining the grade of each student in the course. The final grade is based upon the instructor's evaluation of the student's achievement in the course. Teaching assistants are often directly involved in the grading process, since they may evaluate examinations, quizzes, homework, term papers, lab reports and other student work. 
When grading student work it is important to make your evaluations as objective as possible by establishing grading criteria before you start. Another way to ensure that you are following consistent criteria is to compare papers to which you have assigned the same grade after you finish all of your grading. 
Consistent grading can be especially difficult when you are one of many TAs who are leading sections for the same class. In this situation it is important that you get together with the other TAs and the instructor before you start to grade an assignment or an exam so that you can all agree on your grading criteria. You also may want to compare your grading before returning papers and exams to students to make certain that you are assigning the same grades for comparable work. 
Since TAs play such a significant role in the grading process, it is important that they be familiar with University grading policy, which is published in the Manual of the Los Angeles Division of the Academic Senate and in the UCLA General Catalog. 
The regulations governing grading procedure with which teaching assistants should be familiar include the following: 
Responsibility for Grades

The instructor in charge of a course is responsible for determining the grade of each student in the course.