Everything You Need to Know About Developing a Grading Plan for Your Course (Well, Almost)

Abstract

Regardless of experience, most faculty encounter problems when developing grading plans for the courses they teach, a task made more difficult by the realization that everything they know about a student's performance will, in most instances, have to be summarized in a letter grade. The use of unidimensional symbols . . . to report multidimensional. phenomena” (Milton & Edgerly, 1976, p. 44) is complicated by a general lack of knowledge about grading alternatives on the part of many faculty. Most faculty readily acknowledge this deficiency, as evidenced by their comments at seminars and workshops conducted on college and university campuses by the senior author. In this article, we provide information that should help faculty approach the task of designing a grading plan with a new sense of confidence. We begin with a brief history of grades, which demonstrates the history-repeating-itself phenomenon at work. We then describe the four approaches to grading commonly used today and discuss the pros and cons of each. We examine the purposes of grades, problems with current grading practices, and situational factors to consider in selecting a grading approach. We conclude by proposing eight principles to observe in developing a grading plan, regardless of the type of course or grading approach.