Adaptation‐level as an Explanation for Differential Standards in College Grading

Abstract

College grading is a deeper topic than it at first appears. It can be investigated and described on several levels. On one level, studying college grading is equivalent to studying the behavior of college instructors. Such an investigation would focus on the input factors or antecedents (e.g., student ability levels, work habits, etc.) that influence grading as well as the characteristics of the persons assigning grades.Another level at which college grading can be investigated concerns the consequences of grading practices. These consequences can be studied for their effects on individuals or on aggregates. The latter approach would assess the systemwide effects of grading practices upon the whole institution, including student enrollments, major field choice, and faculty hiring.The authors believe that the antecedents and consequences of college grading are inextricably tied together by a personal characteristic of college instructors. This characteristic is so pervasive among college instructors (and perhaps people in general) as to be considered an almost inevitable factor in college grading process. The characteristic to which we refer is the phenomenon of adaptation level (Helson, 1947(Helson, , 1948.Adaptation level, briefly, concerns the "anchoring" effects of background stimuli upon the perception of focal stimuli. This concept, originally developed to account for psychophysical data, can be translated into the language of college grading. When the performance of the individual student is considered as a focal stimulus, the performances of all other students in the class can be considered as background stimuli against which the individual's performance is judged. Thus, grading standards would be partly determined by the ability level of the student population. If, for example, the ability level declines without an accompanying decline in average grades, then grading standards have "fallen" (or become less "stringent"). 149

College Major and Gender Differences in the Prediction of College Grades

“…For example, in analyses of combined Latino American and non-Latino white groups, Pennock-Roman (1990, Table 3.15) found that humanities, social sciences, business, and education majors were more leniently graded 14 than physical sciences and engineering majors at all six institutions studied, but the biological/health sciences showed less consistent results. The findings from the present investigation and Pennock-Roman (1990) are consistent with many studies that have shown large contrasts in grading leniency between quantitative and nonquantitative majors (Elliott and Strenta 1988;Goldman. and Hewitt 1975;Goldman er al, 1974).…”

“…The distribution of grades in engineering and the physical sciences tends toward higher frequencies in the range of C or below more frequently than the distribution of grades in the humanities and certain social sciences. These differences are found even when previous academic achievement and test scores are taken into account (Elliott and Strenta 1988;Goldman and Hewitt 1975;Goldman er al. 1974;Goldman and Widawski 1976;Strenta and Elliott 1987;Willingham 1985).…”

“…The categorization of majors used here apparently had no greater advantage in reducing gender differences as compared with the dummy-variable approach to the coding of majors into four broad categories used in the earlier analyses (Pennock-Roman 1990). The evidence from several studies (Elliott and Strenta 1988;Goldman and Hewitt 1975;Goldman et a!. 1974;Pennock-Roman 1990) suggests that the most important distinction to make is that between quantitative and nonquantitative majors.…”

Revisiting differential grading standards anno 2014: an exploration in Dutch higher education

“…These differences in grading have been generally attributed to either the varying nature of the tasks needing to be performed successfully within that faculty, or the differences among 'performance' majors (such as fine arts) (Goldman and Hewitt 1975). However, this argument is not supported by this data, due to the largest positive effect size being for education, followed by international business, which would not generally be characterised as 'performance' majors.…”

Können Examensnoten verglichen werden? Eine Analyse von Einflüssen des sozialen Kontextes auf Hochschulprüfungen / Are Grades in Exams Comparable to Each Other? The Impact of Social Context on Grading in Higher Education

“…Amerikanische Untersuchungen aus den 1970er Jahren ziehen die "adaptation theory" heran (Goldman et al 1974(Goldman et al , 1975 (Dickson 1984;Staples 1998 (Nath et al 2004: 559;Titze et al 1990). Ein solches Selektionsklima lässt die Prü-ferinnen schärfer beurteilen.…”