Getting Out of Grading
Few parts of their jobs seem to annoy professors more than grading. The topic consumes gripe sessions, blog posts and creates plenty of professorial angst not to mention student angst.
Cathy Davidson has decided that the best way to change grading is to take herself out of it. Davidson, a Duke University English professor, announced on her blog last week that she was going to give students the power to earn A’s or some other grade based on a simple formula in which she wouldn’t play much of a role.
I loved returning to teaching last year after several years in administration … except for the grading,” she wrote on her blog. “I can’t think of a more meaningless, superficial, cynical way to evaluate learning than by assigning a grade. It turns learning which should be a deep pleasure, setting up for a lifetime of curiosity into a crass competition: how do I snag the highest grade for the least amount of work? how do I give the prof what she wants so I can get the A that I need for med school? That’s the opposite of learning and curiosity, the opposite of everything I believe as a teacher, and is, quite frankly, a waste of my time and the students’ time. There has to be a better way….
“Her approach? “So, this year, when I teach “This Is Your Brain on the Internet,” I’m trying out a new point system. Do all the work, you get an A. Don’t need an A? Don’t have time to do all the work? No problem. You can aim for and earn a B. There will be a chart. You do the assignment satisfactorily, you get the points. Add up the points, there’s your grade. Clearcut. No guesswork. No second-guessing “what the prof wants.” No gaming the system. Clearcut. Student is responsible.”