Anything dishonest is a disservice to students, to the college, to the faculty, to grad schools and to employers. The Academic Assessment office is doing its best to make professors aware of the grade discrepancies. Seymann compiles statistical information about every class and every professor and distributes that list to the deans every year. What they are finding out is consistent with the results of Carico s study. Despite the clear descriptions of grading standards that are listed in the student catalogue, there is a wide variance of standards used and inconsistencies in grading among the professors.
Some professors see grades as a process, and look for improvement.
Others just slap a grade on it. There is no uniformity, Greenberg said. Gaining consistency between the grading practices of the professors appears to be a first step in getting control of inflated grades. Not only is there inconsistency between professors, a problem that is exacerbated with the use of adjuncts, or part-time professors, but teachers will even admit that they are inconsistent within themselves as well. A teacher grading essay tests over a period of days may grade differently each day, depending on a multitude of variables.