The grading process involves two sides: students and faculty. Student effort is weakly related to the grades. This merits an inquiry into the grading process from the side of faculty. One way to examine that process is through the "three P" model of faculty grading orientations (FGOs), where faculty can employ a personal disposition towards grading from a "perfection" perspective, a "peers" perspective, or a "potential" perspective. The "perfection" perspective is one from which a faculty member assesses all of her students' work against a certain criterion, also known as "criterion-referenced" grading in the literature. Faculty members employing the "peers" perspective grade students' performance against one another, which is also known as "norm-referenced" grading. Finally, the "potential" perspective enables a faculty member to evaluate individual students' performance relative to their potential for learning and development. The "potential" perspective is also known as the "self-referenced" grading. What factors are associated with faculty's preference for a grading orientation is the primary focus of this study. Multinomial logistic regressions were conducted on the faculty data collected in Spring 2014, as part of the Faculty Survey of Student Engagement. Approximately 1,600 faculty responses were collected from 18 four-year institutions of higher education in the United States. Results revealed that many faculty held mixed views on grading orientations. Almost all of the faculty in the sample used, or endorsed, the Criterion-referenced grading orientation. A third of the sample also used the "grading on the curve" technique, which corresponds to the Norm-referenced grading orientation when assigning student grades. Finally, approximately 15 percent of the sample used the Self-referenced grading orientation. Women faculty tended to use the Norm-referenced FGO less than men, and the Criterion-referenced FGO more than men. Faculty in the hard-applied disciplines used the Norm-referenced FGO more, and faculty in the soft-pure disciplines tended to use the Self-referenced FGO more than faculty in other types of disciplines. The relationship between faculty grading orientations (FGOs) and the types of learning assessment faculty used as the most important in a class were also examined. Faculty who used the Self-referenced FGO tended to use tests, quizzes, and homework less, and individual assignments more than faculty who used the Norm- or the Criterion-referenced FGOs. Additionally, the relationship between the FGOs and grades that faculty assigned most commonly was explored as well. Faculty who used the Self-referenced FGO tended to award higher grades than faculty who used the other two FGOs. These findings can help inform faculty's grading processes as well as institutional grading policies. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]