Correlating Grades with Student Evaluations

It’s course evaluation time, and like many professors, I’m curious to see how my students perceived their learning experience over the past few months. Ironically, this time of the semester also coincides with the initial stages of grade calculation (a task that probably causes more irreparable harm to the professors than their students). So, after students work their way through two pages of bubble sheets, my office is then inundated with people who want to see their current course standing.

The intersection of grades and course evaluations is nothing new. However, it is the focus of a recently published study by David A. Love and Matthew J. Kotchen (Eastern Economic Journal 2010, 36, 151-163), two professors who developed an economic model that links grade inflation and student behavioral responses (i.e., course evaluations). The culmination of the study appeared quite quid pro quo. Assuming that strong student evaluations increase the likelihood of achieving tenure, many professors appear to (subconsciously) “buy” good student evaluations in exchange for inflated grades.

Here’s one recommendation that stood out among the rest:

“We find that grade targets can be an effective policy not only because they limit grade inflation, but also because institutions can set expectations to improve teaching and research productivity without affecting student effort."

Interesting idea. I guess, in theory, it could work. One summer, I TA’d for a professor who encouraged difficult grading (to keep the averages low) then let us assign our own grades, except that no more than 20% of the class could get A’s. This policy helped distribute grades a bit better, but several tears were shed over the diminishing chances of entering medical school. Interestingly, he was one of the most respected, most liked, and highest rated professors in the department. Another professor, for whom I TA’d, worked hard to keep the grades low then ranked the students. Ultimately, their place in line (so to speak) corresponded to the grade they received; talk about being stressed out. On the other end of the spectrum, I’m familiar with one chemistry department that, in the 1990’s, mandated that 40% of the general chemistry students would fail outright. I imagine that the evaluations were horrid.

In my experience, so long as you’re fair and honest with the grading, students will generally remember this characteristic as they work through their evaluations. Of course, achieving objectives in the syllabus doesn't hurt either.