Describes activities carried out entirely off campus by 18 nonscience-major undergraduates in a beginning course which is designed to help them learn to observe, to ask questions, and to seek for answers. (CC)

Describes a "gradebook program" capable of recording, editing, recoding, weighting, and scaling multiple choice test scores. (SK)

The desirability of a comprehensive assessment of social welfare students is suggested. The multidimensional system of grading is described as a flexible approach to better student evaluation, which complements performance-based curriculum designs. The synergistic effects of a set of objective assignments in a social work research course is…

The author argues that failing grades and grade repetition harm students and should be removed from the middle school. He presents a grading system of A-B-C-Incomplete which would eliminate grade repetition, encourage individualized instruction, and promote student self-esteem. (SJL)

Studied contract grading, which emphasizes greater investment of time and effort by student and instructor, but provides benefits to students difficult to develop through conventional methods. Desirable student outcomes are examined and a sample contract is included. (Author/JAC)

Using as a case study an attempted change in student evaluation and reporting procedures in a junior high school, this paper proposes an analytic framework that identifies specific organizational features which impede the innovation process. (SJL)

The evolution of a group monitoring system directed at rendering the monitoring process more open, as well as improving feedback and direct tutor involvement in the process, is described. Issues discussed at Open University tutors' meetings include grading standards and personal knowledge of students. (AF)

The reliability of grading by tutors at the Open University in Great Britain is examined. It is found that essays pose the greatest problem, which affects instruction in the arts, social sciences, and education most greatly. Less cause for alarm is found in other curricular areas. (MSE)

Lack of independent review process in professional schools and refusal of courts to review errors not resulting from arbitrariness, caprice, or bad faith leave student and societal interests in accurate grading inadequately protected. (Journal availability: University of the Pacific, 3201 Donner Way, Sacramento, CA 95817.) (MSE)

Dental educators, it is suggested, become vulnerable to student lawsuits if they ignore legislative changes and judicial decisions that affect all academic units in higher education. Issues involving contractual considerations, privacy and grading, and recent copyright revisions are reviewed. Knowledge of these issues will better prepare the…

The authors define "cloning" as an integral feature of all educational systems, citing teaching practices which reward students for closely reproducing the teacher's thoughts and/or behaviors and administrative systems which tend to promote like-minded subordinates. They insist, however, that "academic cloning" is not a totally…

Part of the South Carolina technical education system which helps the state attract new industry, Appalachia Tri County Technical College plays a significant role in the preparation of appropriately trained technical workers and in the establishment of new industry in the area. (SB)

University faculty responding to the Faculty Orientation Toward Grading Inventory expressed a norm-referenced orientation; community college faculty expressed a self-referenced orientation. Four year college faculty unexpectedly least favored grading overall. A fourth attitude construct, criterion-referenced grading, was not found to be valid.…

Higher education, it is suggested, has lost much public confidence because of the problem of overinflated grading standards. Relative performance standings of all students in a course could correct the inconsistencies. "Extra academic record" evaluations are seen as expensive, draining faculty time and university resources. (Author/MLW)