This paper examines the grading policies and practices of about 300 teachers from seven high schools in the San Francisco Bay area. Three questions are addressed: (1) Who or what determines grading policies? (2) How do teachers actually calculate grades, that is, what kinds of performances factors are taken into account by teachers? (3) How do…

The Secondary Student Progress Plan aims to provide uniform educational expectations for successful course completion and progress toward graduation beginning with grade 7 in school year 1984-85. Arranged in outline form, the plan shows the course of study for grades 7-12, guidelines for evaluating and reporting student progress, promotion…

The educational system of Jordan is described, and placement recommendations concerning students who want to study in the United States are presented. After describing the setting and structure of Jordanian education, attention is directed to curricula and enrollments, undergraduate student admissions, higher education, and graduate education and…

Professors at a large, northwest, state-supported university selected communication between instructor and student as the most important function of grades. Second in importance was the predictive function of grades, i.e., providing the student and others with information for making educational and vocational decisions. Third in importance was the…

Selected papers and discussions from the Conference of University Administrators held at University College of Swansea on March 31 - April 2, 1977 are presented. The characteristics of a departmental administrator are described, as well as his responsibilities and relationships with members of the staff in the department, with the central…

This document examines the work of Daniel Starch, emphasizing his work in educational psychology and advertising. After earning his doctorate in psychology (1906), Starch attempted to apply the findings of the new science to education and to advertising. This application met with much success. In advertising, he devised new sampling techniques and…

Guidelines are presented to aid secondary school physical education teachers in evaluating student performance in a way that avoids sex-role stereotyping and sex discrimination. Suggestions made for conducting testing in a bias-free setting include: (1) avoid sex-differentiated role tasks; (2) organize motor-performance testing procedures so that…

In an effort to provide a platform from which all 108 California community colleges could address the problems and issues of grading policy, the California Community and Junior College Association developed and adopted an official position statement. The statement cites the need for flexibility within state regulations to allow for adjustments at…

Factors are discussed which affect the role played by faculty in implementing legislation mandating that each of the Florida community colleges define the skills that must be mastered by students before transferring to a baccalaureate program. The report first presents a rationale for this mandate, based on the disproportionately high number of…

A critique of research attempting to determine student achievement by identifying the characteristics and resources of schools is offered. It is pointed out that frequently the academic achievement of students is related to the socioeconomic status of the general student population of the school. The suggestion is made that future research should…

Focusing on current grading practices, this report details a survey of 443 respondents from both four- and two-year institutions of higher education. The data are compared with a 1973-74 survey of the same institutions. Findings show that in general more stringent policies are enforced in the use of nontraditional grading practices, in making-up…

An analysis of criticism leveled against student grading is presented, and a rebuttal is offered. Twenty-two criticisms of grades are divided into four categories; that grades are meaningless, unimportant, unnecessary, and harmful. In response to the criticism, it is pointed out that grading tends to motivate student achievement, provides rewards…

The 18 essays in this volume originated as talks given at the Yale Conferences on the Teaching of English. The first nine discuss where and how to begin writing, the subject matter and organization of student compositions, the relation of writing to reading and grammar, methods used to mark papers, and the evaluation and function of both…

The purposes of this bulletin are (1) to help teachers understand that evaluation is an essential part of the total composing process and involves both teacher and student, and (2) to establish evaluative criteria which reflect realistic objectives for the teaching of writing to students of varying abilities and age groups. Charts for both…

Information obtained from the 1973 Davis Student Survey regarding the perception of students at the University of California at Davis concerning the academic side of campus life is presented. The information is summarized and discussed in five sections: class activity, student faculty relations, academic preparation, learning support services, and…