Examines the history, magnitude, causes, consequences, and remedies of grade inflation. Predicts the erosion of professional autonomy and academic freedom if schools abandon the task of conscientiously assessing what students have learned and external agencies take on the task. (DMM)

Discusses process of continuous assessment that involves many tutors grading papers at Great Britain's Open University and the problem of grade unreliability within such a system. A longitudinal experiment involving grading of papers in one course by all tutors and comparing their grades to determine grading reliability is described. (MBR)

Student promotion or retention is determined by various criteria: grades, student performance, competency tests, attendance records, and conduct. Representative court decisions bearing on each of the criteria are discussed, and guidelines for the development of promotion and retention policy are outlined. (MD)

Recent changes in the objectives and techniques of testing India's university students are examined, including trends toward continuous rather than biennial or annual evaluation; internal (institutional) rather than external, standardized examinations; replacement of essay exams with more objective methods; and a letter grading system. (MSE)

In the 18 years since the founding of the University of California, Santa Cruz, America's youth have turned from long hair to pin-striped careerism. UCSC made the transition with the help of an image overhaul emphasizing its mix of idealistic educational philosophy and rigorous undergraduate courses. (MLW)

The author argues that scoring, reporting, and deriving final grades can be considerably assisted by using a computer. He also contends that the savings in time and the computer database formed will allow instructors to determine test quality and reflect on the quality of instruction. (BW)

This study examines the effect of grading standards on student ratings of instruction. After a grading treatment, the ratings of students in the experimental group changed to reflect more negative perceptions of instruction. These shifts were statistically significant in seven of the ten rating items. (Author/PN)

Discusses the use of holistic evaluation, the use of rubrics and checklists, peer evaluation, and small group peer evaluation as means of making writing evaluation effective while keeping the paper load manageable. (FL)

A point system was introduced in two advanced courses in Spanish in order to provide more individualized instruction. Students who were weak in written or spoken Spanish at the beginning of the semester could compensate by doing extra work; more advanced students could contract to do more sophisticated projects. (Author/RM)

Situated Attainment (SA) is a within-class concept that allows the exploration of why teachers award some students higher or lower grades than their intelligence might warrant. A student's SA is operationally defined as the difference in ranks between the grade awarded by the teacher and the student's intelligence quotient (IQ). For this initial…

This document consists of articles 21-31 published in the electronic journal "Education Policy Analysis Archives" for the year 1999: (21) "Facing the Consequences: Identifying Limitations of How We Categorize People in Research and Policy" (Cynthia Wallat and Carolyn Steele); (22) "Teachers in Charter Schools and…

Combining lecture and small group discussion sessions, the course is divided into 5 units each centered about one major concept designed for arriving at some general understanding of a dimension of the total society. Grading is on a semi-contractual basis allowing the student unlimited opportunity to achieve the grade desired as well as desired…

Use of problem-solving skills in various classroom situations are discussed. Demonstrates that the thinking level of assigned problems, type of examination questions, example-type problems in class, time factor in examinations, grading, help outside of classroom, and behavioral objectives are all areas where problem-solving skills of students can…

Three field experiments were conducted to evaluate Individual Learning Expectations (ILE), an alternative grading structure that awards points by comparing students' quiz scores with individual pretest "base scores." Findings of the studies are promising; however, results regarding the effectiveness of ILE in motivating students'…

Five methods of assessing student projects in science at the university level are surveyed and strategies for using them are suggested. The methods are compared, moderation methods are outlined, and project assessment and other methods of assessment are compared. Sample assessment forms are appended. (Author/JMD)