Discusses a basic news reporting class in which students were graded on how well they graded peer papers. (HOD)

Reaffirms the findings of previous studies: business communication instructors do not agree on the grades they assign student writing. Reports that instructors identify a variety of criteria for grading, tend to use a consistent terminology when analyzing student writing, but this consistent terminology does not guarantee consistent evaluation.…

This paper presents a scientific rationale for deciding the number of points to use on a grading scale in any given assessment situation. The rationale is applied to two common methods of assessment (multiple-choice and essay tests) and an example of a composite assessment. (Author/SJL)

Suggests replacing academic failure with a system in which the teacher explains standards of coursework to students, enabling them to work toward a specific grade or to receive an "incomplete" if they fail to meet minimum expectations. Benefits of such a system are outlined. (SJL)

Suggestions for teacher-oriented supervision of classroom practices, development of new courses, and grading and assignment policies are discussed. (HTH)

Illustrates a change in emphasis on grading for form and content which has occurred in English composition by giving examples from a study conducted in 1972 and 1978 in which seven instructors of English composition were given the same essay to grade six years apart. (MKM)

Grade inflation, which distorts the measurement process and reduces student effort, is caused, in part, by teachers' concern for students' emotional needs. Communication of classroom expectations and grading procedures, frequent evaluation, and utilization of standardized testing data can help reduce grade inflation. (Author/WD)

Contains teaching ideas from six journalism teachers on the following topics: teaching electronic editing, using minicomputers in an advertising media course, five ways to make grading stories easier, the point and code system of grading, student coverage of state government, and the "guided design" teaching technique. (RL)

Provides evidence from various writing research and instruction projects that illustrates one of the basic problems inherent in writing evaluation: the instructor/evaluator's understanding of good and bad, right and wrong, effective and ineffective writing may not be as straightforward or sacrosanct as rhetoric texts suggest. (RL)

Presents a check sheet used to grade a major report in a technical writing class. Indicates that the check sheet helps make grading more "even" over a period of time, allows students to know what will be evaluated on the report, and serves as a teaching tool for different types of reports. (TJ)

Examines board policies requiring that students have their grades reduced for missing classes, misbehaving, and commiting similar infractions. Concludes that such policies are constitutional if they are reasonable and fair and are applied in an even-handed manner. (Author/IRT)

Comments on the increasing variation in grading practice in English courses in grades 11-13. Discusses the judgment categories of content and expressive ability, as well as formal correctness and the definition of the error quotient. Two thirteenth-grade student papers are corrected and graded. (IFS/WGA)

An iterative procedure for adjusting examination marks from papers of varying standards is given. The convergence of the procedure is demonstrated and attention is drawn to an underlying linear model. (MP)

Notes the disagreements that occur between business communication teachers, their peers, and their students about the evaluation and grading of student work. Initiates a larger study of this problem by asking readers to rank seven business letters written by college students. (RL)

The absolute normal scores test is described as a test for the symmetry of a distribution of scores about a location parameter. The test is compared to the sign test and the Wilcoxon test as an alternative to the "t"-test. (Editor/RK)