Guidelines are presented to assist the clinical nursing instructor in deciding whether to give a nursing student a failing grade. The guidelines discuss teacher support of a student, feedback, documentation, and colleague support. (CT)

Reports the results of a study in which copies of two student themes were given to university and community college composition instructors for grading. (HTH)

Investigated and confirmed is a correlation between grades awarded on the basis of students' ability to respond with higher-order cognitive processes in college biology classes and performance on Piagetian-type tasks, in which cognitive style dimension of field dependence-independence was assessed for each student. (CS)

To shed light on persistent differences in grading practices among disciplines, this article investigated the differences and concluded that they emanated from basic differences in disciplinary educational objectives and corresponding socialization strategies. Disciplines were dichotomized into normative and utilitarian types. Sociology and the…

This material presents, in courtroom style, arguments on grade inflation. However, the authors refrain from giving a final verdict. (Author/MLF)

Five approaches to grading student tests are described and their advantages and limitations are examined. It is suggested that the fifth approach, which takes into account the general ability level of the class and applies predetermined percentages to determine the number of students receiving each grade, is the most rational approach. (JMD)

Contract grading is seen as a way to enable instructors to assign written work and respond to it helpfully so that their students will learn from the experience. Experiences with contract grading in a sophomore literature class are described. (MLW)

Focuses on the influence of examiners' level of experience and professional background on grades given in oral and written undergraduate examinations in psychology. Level of experience was found to have no significant effect. Clinical psychologists gave more laudabilis grades on oral exams and academic psychologists on essay exams. (JD)

Reports on a beginning-of-the-semester assignment in which students wrote questions to their instructor to determine his views about writing. Questions asked fell into four categories: (1) personal, not English related; (2) personal, English related; (3) English, what the teacher would accept; and (4) English, grading standards. (38 questions and…

Use of choice-weighted scores as a basis for assigning grades in college courses was investigated. Reliability and validity indices offer little to recommend either type of choice-weighted scoring over number-right scoring. The potential for choice-weighted scoring to enhance the teaching/testing process is discussed. (Author/GK)

The article contrasts North American and Soviet views and approaches to student evaluations, especially in the area of testing differences in academic achievement. It provides a brief summary of Soviet schooling and evaluative procedures. (Author/SB)

A high school writing teacher provides insights about her grading procedures by "writing letters" to typical students in various grade categories. (RL)

The design and development of a student produced, three credit/no credit televised course on human sexuality at Michigan State University is reviewed. The need for the course, its structure, and student reaction are presented. (RAO)

Describes undergraduate teaching assistant (TA) system designed to maintain high standards of grading by TAs and to assure students and colleagues that TA grading is consistent and fair. A description of TA training and monitoring and data on TA performance are presented. (Author/KC)

Some causes for reliability problems in tutor-marked assignments are discussed: factors relating to the questions such as ambiguous, overloaded, hidden agenda, and unrealistic questions; variations caused by differing tutor notes; and students not answering the question, scales and standards, rounding and partial scores, and bonus marks. (JMF)