Describes ways of using spreadsheets to maintain gradebooks, including use of weighted scores to calculate a student's running average and potential for use in preparing report cards. Several spreadsheet programs currently available are reviewed, and their advantages and disadvantages for educators are indicated. (MBR)

Explains how a microcomputer and a word processor can be utilized to keep teachers' records and presents a brief BASIC word processing program called SCRIPSIT to show how grades can be calculated from those records. Possible program modifications and how to construct the SCRIPSIT file are discussed. (MBR)

Discusses Magazine Index's practice of assigning letter grades (sometimes inaccurate) to book, restaurant, and movie reviews, thus allowing patrons to get the point of the review from the index rather than the article itself, and argues that this situation is indicative of the larger problem of reliability of abstracts. (MBR)

Discusses each of the questions, the correct answers, and how student responses were evaluated in the Vergil and Catullus-Horace essay sections of the Latin Advanced Placement exam. (EKN)

Reviews a Pennsylvania higher court decison in which a student sued the school board for reducing her grades as punishment for misconduct during a school outing. The court found in the student's favor. The punishment must fit the crime. (MD)

Describes a grading option used by technical writing faculty members at Ohio State University that allows students to complete reports on their own in order to learn to work without supervision. (FL)

A program is described that successfully involves parents in their child's education at a middle school in Louisiana. (MD)

Provided are results of using and faculty reaction to a method designed to reduce grade inflation. Each student's grade is recorded and a new measure of performance is also computed and recorded. The formula used is: "honors point score" equals student's grade (0 to 4) minus class average grade (0 to 4) plus 3. (JN)

A procedure and a computing diagram for assigning score boundaries to grading categories on classroom tests are described. The procedure takes both the median ability level of the class and the test performance of the class relative to that of other classes into account. (Author)

An alternative grading system for use in advanced typewriting and transcription classes is described. The system consists of E for excellent (equivalent to an A), M for mailable (equivalent to a B), and NM for not mailable. An S (equivalent to a C) is awarded when an assignment is satisfactorily retyped. (TA)

A test is administered at the end of a unit. On the basis of test performance mastery status is awarded or withheld. An optimum decision rule is fomulated in terms of degree of success in a referral task. (HG)

Presents data, covering 1971-74, concerning grading and instructional systems at 92 college chemistry departments. Among the conclusions were that all of the institutions use the traditional letter grading system and that grade distributions and patterns have been stable. (MLH)

AACRAO's new publication "Current Trends in Grades and Grading Practices in Higher Education: Results of the 2004 AACRAO Survey" continues the tradition of surveying grading practices in higher education first begun in 1920. Although much has changed in the world of academia since, grades have remained a central feature. This consistent importance…

This second edition contains updated and refreshed material on the problems caused by the current grading system and contains new information on assessment, standards, and social promotion. The chapters are: (1) Overview; (2) History of Grades; (3) Myths about Grades; (4) Normal Variation in Academic Ability; (5) The Lock-Step Curriculum; (6) The…

This report presents the results of a study investigating inflation in high school grade point average (HSGPA). Inflation was measured by comparing HSGPA to ACT Assessment (ACT) scores over the years 1991 to 2003. The results indicate the presence of grade inflation over the 13 years. That is, HSGPAs increased without a concomitant increase in…