Molecular Biology AI Manual

Grading and Evaluation

Establishing Standards
Teachers view grading as a necessary and useful way to give students feedback on their work and as a way to convey a sense, however contingent, of standards of quality. Written comments, in addition to numerical or letter grades are a useful vehicle for identifying students' success or failure in meeting the educational objectives of their courses. Teachers may disagree about the object of comparison against which to grade. Should one compare students to each other, to criteria one has set, to each student's own previous performance, to one's own expectations of each individual student? Such questions raise further issues about whether or not to adjust grades to a curve, whether or not to establish quotas, and whether or not to explicitly use grades as an incentive for improvement. Answers to these sorts of questions may depend on how comfortable you are with grading as a subjective process or, alternatively, on how objective you think it is or should be. You may initially feel intimidated by the fact that grading is always at least somewhat subjective. Both you and your students may feel more comfortable with the process if you strive for consistency and communicate your expectations to your students as clearly as you can.

Since grading can be a very complicated issue, it is essential to establish a grading and regrading policy before the semester has started. If this is agreed upon by you, the TA, and the faculty teaching the course, there will be no doubt how to deal with problems if they arise. While you do well to reflect on your own preferred approach to grading, as a TA you may not be as autonomous in this respect as you would like. You may also be working with a team of other TAs with whom you may want to coordinate your approach. You should confer with the other TAs teaching the same course in order to standardize grades (see section 2.1).

Grading Fairly
When grading assignments for a class, it is important to make sure that work is graded fairly and consistently for all students. Before grading an exam or problem set, it is a good idea to read all of the problems carefully, and think through them yourself. An answer key should be created by the TAs and/or the faculty teaching the course that clearly delineates the expected answer, and how many points should be assigned to each part of the answer. Make sure that all TAs are using the same criteria for grading. When several TAs grade an exam together, it is a good idea to divide the work in such a way that each TA grades the same question for every student, rather than having each TA grade all the problems for a different subset of students. This helps to ensure that each problem will be graded the same way for all students. In situations where each TA in a course grades the lab reports or problem sets for their section of students only, it is a good idea to normalize grades at the end of the semester. This usually means averaging the grades for each TAs section, and then adjusting students' grades based on the difference between the average for the entire class and the average for their section.

Students have a right to be upset when work is not graded fairly so be careful to treat students equally. If a student calls a mistake to your attention, apologize and correct the mistake. Sometimes, students will try to improve their scores by claiming that you graded their work improperly. The best way to avoid problems in such situations is to have a clear system for grading, which can be easily explained to any student, professor, or dean.

Grading Tips
1) In order to be an efficient and consistent grader, it is best to make a written list of all the topics the students should cover in any given answer, and how many points each topic deserves. You may want to read through a few of your students' answers as you make up this list. Often they will come up with ideas that you did not.

2) Some TAs choose to grade one entire lab report or problem set at a time. This allows you to have a relatively complete picture of each student's understanding. Alternatively, you could grade one section, or question, for all of your students at one time. This will allow you to focus on the details required for that particular answer and may help you grade more consistently between students.

3) Some TAs choose to grade blind in order to be as objective as possible. On the other hand, it may be helpful for your students if you carefully monitor how each student is doing and where their particular trouble spots are.

4) Consider correcting grammar and spelling mistakes. You might point out to students that grammar and spelling are still important.

5) You may want to require that lab reports and problem sets be typed in order to avoid problems with illegible handwriting.

6) Grading takes time so be prepared to set aside a few hours a week. Depending on your schedule, grading can be done all in one session, or in multiple sessions throughout the week. Both you and your students will benefit if you take the time to be a careful grader.

7) If you are a conscientious grader, you will be prepared to handle your students' questions about their grades. Stand by your grades, unless you have made a mistake.

Responding to Written Work
Evaluating written work can prove challenging because of the many subtle ways our students' writing might affect us. We respond to their written work at a number of different levels, from the detail-work of punctuation and proofreading, to the larger elements of our students' organizational skills and logical analyses, to the language they use and the ideas they express. As you evaluate students' written work, keep in mind the distinction between content and writing style. You can praise or criticize both aspects, just be sure you know what it is that you are giving or taking away points for. Evaluation is not merely a reaction to a student's work; we have a responsibility to make our responses useful to our students. Whenever possible, let the students know why you gave them the grade that you did and how they might improve for the next time.

Dealing With Regrades
As with all other course policies, the policy on regrades should be established and made clear to all faculty, TAs, and students at the start of the semester. In some of the classes in our department, the faculty take on the responsibility of handling regrades on exams. If regrading is left up to the TAs, it is a good idea to require a written explanation from your students detailing why they think they deserve more points on a particular question. Also, establish a time limit on accepting exams for regrades; 1-2 weeks after their exams have been returned to them is sufficient time for them to rethink their answers and decide whether or not to request a regrade.