The results of a large survey, investigating preference given to students from graded schools when selecting residents, are analyzed. The respondents are directors of residency training programs. Preference and higher ratings of performance were given to graded students if their programs were in medicine, surgery, or obstetrics/gynecology.…

This research study, undertaken across a department, presents the results of two focus groups in which twenty undergraduate students offer their views on participation assessment and its underlying goal of student engagement. Barriers to fairly assessing participation are discussed along with their solutions. Assessing participation, though, isn't…

At the Medical College of Wisconsin, a procedure was developed to allow computerized grading and grade reporting of laboratory practical examinations in the Clinical Human Anatomy course. At the start of the course, first year medical students were given four Lists of Structures. On these lists, numbered items were arranged alphabetically; the…

This article presents pragmatic information on teaching early childhood teacher candidates how to assess children's inquiry process skills. The authors list three important steps in choosing inquiry skills. They generated behavioral indicators for each inquiry skill, and designed an assessment rubric using number grading or a…

Assigning a grade to students' class contribution may be 1 of the most controversial and difficult challenges that instructors face. The authors examine the perceived fairness of class contribution grading methods from the perspective of the performance appraisal literature. In 2 scenario studies based on actual grading techniques, the authors…

This paper provides an overview of the issue of student anonymity in the summative assessment of student work in higher education. It considers both theoretical literature pertaining to bias in the evaluation of the work of others and the limited empirical work undertaken on this issue in higher education. It then describes the experience of three…

Seven principles are provided to serve as guides in reexamining teaching practices. (AG)

Self-grading by students is discussed. (DB)

A teacher must have a certain amount of intuition in order to judge the level of a student's knowledge of a subject with which the teacher himself is unfamiliar. (CK)