EVALUATING STUDENT LEARNING

Determining and Explaining Criteria

Most TAs have some responsibility for evaluating student performance (weekly quizzes or essays, mid-term or final examinations, lab reports, term papers, and the like); some TAs assign final quarterly grades as well. Because of these responsibilities, it is important that you develop a sense of your academic standards early on, preferably while you are planning your activities for the course overall.

It is very important that you explain standards clearly when you introduce the course to your students and probably at several subsequent points as well. Most students use grading criteria to determine what they should concentrate on learning in a course. By making your grading policies clear, you can focus students' attention on what is most important for them to learn.

Because grades communicate the relative weight of course goals and assignments, and because grades in a course may have great influence on students' future academic work, most students are very sensitive about grades and the criteria on which they are based: "Will this be on the test? How much does the quiz count toward the final grade? Do you consider attendance and participation?" are typical questions. Standards should be explained clearly and applied consistently throughout the quarter.

This preparation is particularly important if you are one of several TAs assigned to a large lecture class. Some professors divide grading among TAs to ensure consistent standards (so, for example, a TA might not always be grading his or her own students' work). If the professor divides a stack of essays or tests among several of you, plan to meet with the other TAs for a trial run to ensure reliability and consistency across the entire scope of the lecture class. Consistency should apply not only to what constitutes a particular mark, but also to concerns like accepting late papers and taking more than the time allotted for an exam. Attention to these matters in the beginning will save time and energy you would otherwise spend later justifying your grades.