On October 26, 1999, I posed the following composite case history and questions to faculty and staff for discussion:

A student with a very good record in prerequisite courses takes an engineering class. The syllabus states that the grade will be based 33% on each of three exams. It provides no further information how exam scores will convert to grades. On the first exam, the student scores 36/100, and the class average is 33/100.

The student, with 36/100, has a very low grade, 0.0 by common straight standards. On the other hand, the student is above average, which could mean anything from a 1.0 to a 3.5 if the grades are curved. The instructor states in class that the test was hard and that grades will be curved, but is vague regarding how.

The drop date is coming near, and the decision to stay or drop involves $500, six months of one's life, and possibly admission or denial to the major of primary choice. In the student's large prerequisite classes, grading standards or curving schemes will fairly explicit.

? Is the information furnished by the instructor sufficient under the MSU code of teaching responsibility?

? How can advisors, faculty and administrators assist this student in deciding whether to stay in or drop?

? What might administrators tell parents in this situation?

? What other comments might you have about this situation?

Responses
(edited for length, attempted to preserve content)

? Is the information furnished by the instructor sufficient under the MSU code of teaching responsibility?

• I'm not a lawyer, but it appears that the information meets the minimum requirement from the code of teaching responsibility. ..(proceeds to quote the code, item 2)..This is a pretty vague statement. I don't know how it has been interpreted in student appeals of grading.

• There are actually two issues here. One is that the student evidently  cannot find out his standing, the other has to do with academic standards. Regarding the first issue, if accurately portrayed, this is irresponsible  on part of the instr. It also demonstrates a preoccupation with professorial power, whether admitted or not. Students should be able to calculate their current grade on the 4 scale at any time after their first work is turned in and graded, whether homework or exams. Also, some form of assessment (HW or exam or..) should be in place before the drop period so students can get a decent indication of their own grasp of the material and the grading style. It would be interesting to hear the instr side of the story to check out if the student really listened to the instr comments about the grades and the curve. (comment-- I agree.. no effort has been made to do so, and the case is a composite.   Anecdotal information suggests that many instructors do not have a clearly defined grading algorithm, but may be able to provide a summary of student's standing they find acceptable--tfw).

• (1) A syllabus must include a complete description of exactly how performance on exams, quizzes, projects, class participation is mapped onto course grades. (2) Saying that 'a curve is to be used' is not sufficient. (3) The syllabus MUST state the exact distribution and how it is mapped onto the course grade.
  

? How can advisors, faculty and administrators assist this student in deciding whether to stay in or drop?

• The instructor should, after the exam, list for the class a breakdown of what each numerical score "means" in terms of a grade, and how many students in the class attained a given grade. Eventually, the instuctor must make the conversion of the test score (31/100) into a grade (0 - 4.0). Why not inform the entire class quickly of what that decision is, in a straight-forward, timely, and explicit manner?

• They can facilitate a conversation between the instructor and student to get a better idea of how the student is doing and clarification of the grading criteria. Will all exam scores be added then curved? Will each exam receive a "grade" and if so, what grade does the student's score earn on this exam? Does the instructor have previous experience with this course and type of assessment to make a judgement on how the student is doing or is this the first time through and s/he is feeling her/his way and making adjustments in real time?

• I do not believe in the "standard curve and I do not use it. I do, however, believe in full disclosure and being totally up-front with the students. Your scenario could have been my class grades. Upon the return of the exam, I provide a "Grade conversion line" with the indication of the 2.0=raw score of XX and 4.0=raw score of YY.

• ..This is important (rightly) to students. There is a particular problem for (certain intro classes ).... The issue is that before the students can really do any work that is close to being really up to standards that I would want by the end of the class - the students have to unlearn a bunch of things they may have learned from high school class. In particular, most of these students are very into being told EXACTLY how to do some problem, then they can be quite proficient in going off and doing it. But when they get what (for lack of a better term) amounts to a "word problem" (ie, a real test of problem solving), a large number of them just either clutch or immediately ask for help. By this point in the term, they are unlearning their old habits, and beginning to be (I hope) more self reliant in terms of problem solving situations. ..  This makes it tough to supply students with true feedback too early in the term. I have graded homework for them, but until they complete a sizable section of the course and the attendant unit exam, early feedback may not be indicative of their final grade. ... I am still struggling with this, because I know the issue is important from a student perspective. I just myself have not figured out how to really successfully deal with it yet. I intend on trying something a little different to plug the gap next term though. (... perhaps in this specific course, the remedy might just be to lay these facts out early on and up front, and state that "here's where you are at mid-term, but mid-term may not be a good predictor of final grades for these reasons... tfw)
  
  

? What might administrators tell parents in this situation?

• Nothing without permission of the student. (Comment - the intent was to ask how to respond to the parents' complaints regarding feedback to the student rather than telling parents about the student's progress .. tfw)

? What other comments might you have about this situation?

• Regardless of whether the instructor has extensive experience with this course or is a first-timer, the amount of information provided to the students is insufficient as either formative or summative feedback. While it would be best to have clearer evaluation specifications at the beginning of the course, the instructor should discuss the results with the students and clarify the grading criteria. Projections from current midterm grades to probable final grades would also be helpful to students so that they can make decisions about dropping, working harder, getting other help, etc.

• There are actually two issues here. One is that the student evidently  cannot find out his standing, the other has to do with academic standards. (Regarding the second issue.. ) I find these days that students have been grade-pampered so much through public school and beginning college, that they have unrealistic expectations and inflated concepts of their own ability and background. They tend to expect at least a 3.0 for less than mediocre work. They expect a high curve where nobody can fail, no matter what. They go into a state of denial when the outcome is not so good, and blame everyone but themselves, including, perhaps, thinking that the instr did not keep them informed. They convey only this part of the picture to the parent or counselor....I have heard parents make comments about a course that are nothing short of outlandish. If the grading policy is in writing and has been handed to the student, and if you read it to the parent and explain it, said parents usually calm down right away or rechannel their anger to the offending progeny. I once had a parent who was really upset and talking lawsuits until I pointed out that the son had missed more than half the classes.

• I recently attended a 1.5 days seminar "Effective College Teaching Seminar: Excellence in Civil Engineering Education (ExCEED)" at Charlotte, NC organised and partly subsidized by ASCE. Richard Felder and Rebecca Brent were the presenters. I was impressed with many issues they presented, one of which was exactly this one.
  
  Their answer was: "Eliminate the CURVE and define a clear range for each grade which everyone can achieve. This should be done at the beginning of a course. It obviously means that the instructors MUST take responsibility for making good exams. If the average is low, equal points can be added to reach the stated range but DO NOT CURVE. They also suggested that to assign two different grades to close scores (say 85 and 82), the history of student's performance must be considered: was it decreasing or increasing over the whole semester, and may be other assesment parameters should be included. According to them curving should be eliminated because it is a major hindrance for any form of cooperative learning.

• There may be confusions between instructor and students over the meaning of 'graded on a curve.'  Also, there may be 'confusion' within the instructor's head about what it means to grade on a curve.
  
  My personal conclusion is that for large classes, say over 100 students, one should not say that the grade is graded on a curve.  It is much better to assign points and weights to points (weights and points for each measuring instrument stated in the syllabus) and state how the total number of points are mapped onto the course grades.
  
  When reporting the first exam, then the same standards can be applied to tell the students what the single exam maps onto the course grades.  With the second exam, the instructor can do the calculations for the class and present both the mapping for the second exam as if it were the only instrument, and the second exam points with the first exam points together, and how they map onto the grades.
  
  One can always state with this method that the instructor will never make the standards any higher than those published in the syllabus. For smaller classes, it may be a bit more difficult to follow the above, especially if it does not have many sources of points.   However, the syllabus should still be explicit.  If one needs more flexibility, then one can state the weights of the the exams, and then say that what will be added will not be the points on the exam but the grades on the 0.0 to 4.0 scale, as weighted.  But still some idea of the number of grades at each scale level should be indicated if an absolute scale is not used.

• The syllabi for many courses in msu are grossly inadequate. This may be due to the lack of examples, but I suspect due to the fact that instructors are pressured to do a lot, any anything that is not an absolute necessity is considered making unreasonable demands on the time available for research.

• No constructive pedagogical purpose can be served by keeping the student in the dark about grading methods!  Further, these need to be specified in the syllabus. Finally, the syllabus for each and every course should be on the web in a uniform manner!