Evaluating Student Work I

Philosophy of Grading

In this section 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:

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.

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:

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.

The Nuts and Bolts of Grading

Before you grade your first assignments check the following:

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

Download UCLA Policy on Grading in Adobe PDF Format (Size: 11.33KB)

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.

Grades Interpreted
The level of achievement of all undergraduate students is designated in the following terms:

Grade Points
Grade points per unit are assigned by the Registrar as follows:

The grades A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, C+, C and P denote satisfactory progress toward a degree. The C- and D grades denote progress toward a degree, but such grades must be offset by higher grades in other courses.

I -The Grade of Incomplete
The grade I may be assigned when a student's work is of passing quality but is incomplete. The grade I is only assigned when the student establishes to the instructor's satisfaction that the student's work is incomplete for a good cause.

To Remove Incomplete Grades
The student is entitled to have an Incomplete replaced by a passing grade and to receive unit credit and grade points provided he or she satisfactorily completes the work of the course by the end of the next full term following the term in which the I was received. The Dean of the appropriate school or college has authority to extend the deadline for completion in the event of unusual circumstances that would clearly impose an unfair hardship on the student if the original deadline were maintained.

F or NP-Fail, Not Passing
If the work is not completed according to the provisions noted above, the grade I shall automatically be replaced with F or NP as appropriate.

P- Pass
A grade of P may be awarded only for work that would otherwise receive a grade of C or better.

IP - In Progress
For courses authorized to extend over more than one quarter and where evaluation of the student's performance is deferred until the end of the final term, a provisional grade of IP (in progress) is assigned in the intervening term(s). The provisional grade is replaced by the final grade if the student completes the full sequence. The faculty of each school or college is authorized to regulate the award of credit in cases where the full sequence is not completed.

Repetition of Courses
Repetition of courses is subject to the policies of the departments offering the courses and the following conditions: a) A student may repeat only those courses for which he or she received a grade of C-, D+, D, D-, F or NP; however, the appropriate Dean may authorize repetition of courses graded Incomplete; b) Repetition of a course more than once requires approval by the appropriate Dean in all instances; c) Degree credit for a course will be given only once, but the grade assigned at each enrollment shall be permanently recorded. Courses in which a grade of C-, D+, D, D- or F has been earned may not be repeated on a pass/not pass basis. In computing the grade-point average of an undergraduate who repeats courses in which he or she received a C-, D+, D, D-, F or NP, only the most recently earned grades and grade points are used.

Correction of Grades
All grades, except DR, I and IP, are final when filed by an instructor in the end-of -term course report. However, the Registrar is authorized to change a final grade a) upon written request of an instructor, provided that a clerical or procedural error is the reason for the change or b) upon written request of the Chairman of the Division in cases where is has been determined by the Committee on Privilege and Tenure that an instructor has assigned a grade on any basis other than academic grounds. No change of grade may be made on the basis of reexamination or, with the exception of the I and IP grades, the completion of additional work.

Academic Dishonesty

Make sure students understand the conventions of academic credit; in some cases their high-school assignments asked them to copy and regurgitate.

UCLA Policy On Academic Dishonesty

TAs and professors are not allowed to simply accuse a student of cheating or plagiarism and take punitive action. University policy requires that all cases of academic dishonesty be submitted to the Dean of Students; if you do this, you will be on safe legal ground, even if the dean doesn't handle it the way you'd like. One advantage of submitting it to the dean is that repeat offenders will not go unnoticed. If you do suspect cheating or plagiarism, you should amass all possible evidence and give suspects the opportunity to confess before producing it.

Visit our Evaluating Student Work III - Academic Dishonesty section that provides more thorough coverage of  this topic.