Discusses the use of holistic scoring in the introductory college psychology course. Presents data showing the reliability, validity, and efficiency of the holistic scoring of students' written work by teaching assistants. Argues that holistic scoring is a high quality, low cost approach to scoring written work in large classes. (SG)

This paper assists teachers in developing grading practices that communicate students' achievements to their parents effectively and fairly. A teacher's personal grading philosophy must be considered in developing a personal plan. Procedural steps in establishing a plan are outlined, and the features of several common methods are compared. (SLD)

Uses handwriting samples of 12 undergraduates to explore whether teachers give higher marks to students' work in good handwriting and whether the students' gender may be surmised by their handwriting. Results show grading is not influenced by handwriting quality and finds no effect of gender attribution on grades assigned. (NL)

Proposes that science students keep thinking journals of their reading of their science textbooks as a method of increasing students' critical thinking skills. Discusses strategies to initiate the practice, effective use of time, sample student entries, and the use of class discussions to process the writing. (MDH)

Research in the area of grade adjustment methods from the last 27 years is reviewed in the context of admissions selection and of prediction of student performance in college. Contemporary grade adjustment methods can often produce indexes of academic performance with greater reliability than that found with grade point average. (SLD)

Describes an assessment strategy used by pharmacy faculty to grade student writing in a large-class, lecture-based course, outlining the steps the instructors took to recast an existing writing assignment so that it is carefully constructed and articulated, can be assessed quickly and consistently by multiple assessors (self, peer, instructor),…

A study investigated the clinical preparedness of 144 Stanford University (California) medical school graduates in 11 areas, comparing it with peers from graded medical schools and rating the accuracy of the dean's letter in representing graduates' capabilities. Results indicate that graduates from Stanford's two-interval, pass/fail system…

Grading class participation can send positive signals to college students about the kind of learning and thinking an instructor values. Various structures for participation (whole-class discussion, cold-calling on students, collaborative learning, electronic mail, journals, student-faculty conferences) call for different approaches to assessment.…

Identifies 13 administrative issues that arise when teaching distance education courses with students enrolled through other higher education institutions. Highlights include administrative models; academic cultures; academic calendars; registration processes; text books and additional readings; library resources; course materials; copyright…

Instructors teaching any college statistics course hold to a standard practice of assigning homework, grading it, and returning it to students with some form of feedback. However, with a course as difficult, intimidating, or as intense as statistics, students often need help from the instructor during non-office hours. Large class sizes often…

The 2001 U.S. Supreme Court Case of Falvo v. Owasso School System (Owasso Independent School District No I-011 v. Falvo) has focused national attention on the common classroom practice of peer-grading. In a unanimous decision the court reaffirmed the popular view that students grading each others' tests is valuable, saving teachers' time and…

This study examined how particular grading systems motivate students. Since competency-based grading and point systems are most prevalent (Hendrickson and Gable, 1999), the current study is modeled around these systems. The grading systems used for this study were divided into two categories and defined as those students who earned their grades…

Team-based assessments are commonly used in management education, yet questions remain about how to adequately differentiate individuals' levels of input into team processes and project content when grading a team-based assessment. Following an overview of relevant research, this article describes an innovative self- and peer-assessment strategy…

This practical, how-to guide makes it easy for teachers to incorporate the latest technology in their classes. Employing an informal workshop approach, the book avoids technical jargon and pays special attention to the needs of teachers who are expanding the use of computers in their classroom. The authors focus on what teachers do and how they…

Performance assessments in education and credentialing are becoming popular. At the same time, there do not exist any well established and validated methods for setting standards on performance assessments. This paper describes several of the new standard-setting methods that are emerging for use with performance assessments and considers their…