Grading and marking (Students)

This study investigated the varied district student progression policies from 9th to
lOth grade and their effect on the district-level achievement of the high schools as
measured by six categories of FCA T achievement consistent with those that comprise
district grades during the 2005-2006 academic year. In Florida, the state assessment
policy and the resulting rewards and sanctions policy, known as the Florida A+ Plan, are
uniformly defined across districts while the state student progression policy simply
provides guidelines for districts to follow. This results in varied student progression
policies in the 67 school districts within the state.
A quantitative study of the district student progression policies for promotion
from 9th to lOth grade and student achievement, as measured by the Florida
Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCA T), was conducted to determine the effect of
varied student progression policies on district FCA T achievement. Five predictor variables, based upon promotion requirements from the 9th to 1Oth grade, - number of
credits, the type of credits, the availability of midyear promotion, additional requirements
to be met for midyear promotion, and minimum grade point average - the six FCA T
based criterion variables; and, two contextual variables - district socioeconomic status
(SES) and district size were used in the study.
Linear regression analysis was used to find that the inclusion of a minimum grade
point average had a significant inverse relationship with FCA T Reading Learning Gains.
Additionally, theSES of the district was found to significantly affect the relationship
between the midyear promotion of students and FCAT Reading proficiency; the type of
credits required for promotion and FCA T Math proficiency; and the minimum number of
credits required for promotion and both FCA T Math learning gains and FCA T Reading
learning gains of the lowest quartile of students.
The second order interaction of district size on the effect of SES on the
relationship between the predictor and criterion variables yielded significant moderating
effects of district size on the moderating effect of SES for the relationships between the
minimum number of credits required for promotion and both FCA T Math proficiency and
FCA T Math learning gains.

Measurement experts have criticized the use of essay examinations,
chiefly because of their scoring unreliability. Research has emnhasized
scoring inconsistencies and that scorers of essay examinations are frequently
led by composition errors or other writing quality factors to
grade the subject matter--content--of the essays inconsistently. Studies
critical of essay scoring have emphasized the content of essay answers
and have used scorers with minimal expertise in the essays' subject areas.
Recent research reveals that, under certain conditions, i.e., when
writing experts are scoring for placement, using appropriate grading
criteria, reliability rates for essay scoring are improving. Besides
making distinctions between grading conditions and purposes, recent
studies distinguish between content and writing skills, and emphasize
examination of how content characteristics of student essays influence teachers' ratings.
This study focused on whether freshman placement essays would be
graded consistently by different groups of college faculty, experts in
writing and experts in the topic of the essays. Also examined were how
content designated as strong and weak would influence the overall scores
and the scoring of writing quality.

Statement of Problem. The purpose of this study was to explore the possibility that the race and sex of teachers and the race and sex of students may have influenced the grades assigned by high school teachers of English in the nation's tenth largest school district, Broward County, Florida. Delimitations. The study involved all students who were enrolled and received a final grade in Regular English I, II and III classes in the twenty (20) public high schools for both semesters of the 1978-1979 school year. All teachers who taught these students and assigned grades, as determined by computer print-outs were included. The exception was that black male teachers and the students taught by them were not included. This exclusion was due to the small number of students taught by black male teachers. Results and Conclusions. Two tentative findings of importance emerged from the study: (1) Boys of both races who were low achievers seemed to have a better chance of passing ninth grade English if they were assigned to male teachers. This did not hold true for higher grade levels possibly because of drop outs. (2) Black female teachers may have tended to be too critical of black girls at higher levels (grades 10 and 11) and to have overly idealized the performance of older white girls (grade eleven). This may have indicated an over-reaction due to the cultural expectations placed upon black females in the black society. The study did not, however, indicate that the differences in grading patterns were influenced in any systematic and consistent way by interactions between student and teacher sex-race variables other than for the tentative findings listed above. Implications for Further Study. The research included in this study was limited by the use of only English grades. Further study is necessary to discover if these findings hold true across other subject areas. The study was further limited by the exclusion of black male teachers. Further study is necessary to discover if black male teachers demonstrate a discernible grading pattern. The limited amount of available research on teacher grading patterns clearly suggests the need for further study in this area.

The accountability measures implemented by the states as a result of federal government mandates required by the No Child Left Behind Act (2001 [NCLB]) have created the need for states to develop standardized benchmark assessments as part of the compliance requirements set by the federally mandated act. State and local standardized tests have become an everyday part of public school life. A quantitative study was conducted to assess the correlation of students' scores on the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and students' reading percent scale-scores on one Florida county's benchmark reading assessment (CBAT) with students' teacher-assigned grades (TAG) for 10th-grade, English Language Arts courses. The study also assessed the predictive values of the 3 criterion variables and the moderating effects of 6 categorical variables: Race (White, Black, and Hispanic), Socioeconomic status (SES), English Language Learner status (ELL), and Students with Disabilities status (SWD), which contribute to Florida's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) ranking of school grading policy. The study found that there was a moderate and positive correlation among the 3 criterion variables and that the combination of students' scores on the reading portions of both the CBAT and the FCAT showed a significant predictive value in predicting students' TAG. The study showed an even higher predictive value of the combination of students' scores on the CBAT and students' TAG in predicting students' scores on the FCAT. The study showed there was a moderating effect of the categorical variable Race on the correlation between students' CBAT reading scores and students' TAG; however, Race did not moderate the correlation between students' scores on FCAT and students' TAG.