A Liberal Allowance
Teaching at the graduate school level is quite a bit different than teaching at almost any lower level. In the modern world (at least among those who prize education and believe it is on the path to success), it is quite normal to go beyond a four year college degree. The penetration rate of college graduates has risen now to 53.7% of American adults and of those, 14.7% (27% of the college grads) seek some sort of advanced degree. Those are pretty impressive statistics. I don’t know exactly how many of the current graduate student body are in business school versus other programs, but I can tell you that business school students are generally different in one way. They are in school very often on their own ticket. And that is to say that in addition to the cost of tuition and living expenses, most of them have chosen to interrupt their careers in order to supercharge them for future advancement. That is quite different than students in most other graduate programs, and it tends to make them fairly serious about making the most of their classes. Even with required classes, these students are value buyers and they want value for their tuition.
The other thing that makes business school students different is that they are not often judged for employment based on their academic performance in the classroom. What they take for course work and their broader skills and experiences matterhhx faewr more to their future employers than what grade they got. I know that most stud. ents are hardwired to care about grades, but in graduate school we are told to grade on a curve to between a B+ and an A-, which falls precisely on the 90% line given that University of San Diego doesn’t give A+’s. An A is 95% or higher and a B is 85%. That way, an A- is 90-95 and a B+ is 85-90. I have taught in graduate business school now for 13 years. I can only remember giving a grade of less than a B once or twice, and I have never had a student fail one of my courses. The C grade I recall giving was due to suspected cheating by two students. Fortunately, I’ve never had to give worse since graduate students aren’t given credit for courses where they receive grades less than a B. That helps explain the curve we are asked to maintain.
Speaking of curves, I have often observed and said that these classes adhere to a normal student distribution where there are a few exceptional students and a few stragglers, with the bulk of the student body falling near the center of the curve. That doesn’t mean that all those students in the middle are not serious, it just means that they need to be led to a better place. That is the job of a teacher as far as I’m concerned. I have never cared a whit about the grading in my courses other than that it has to be done and I always want it to be as fair as possible.
I had several interesting things happen this year that concerned grading. I had organized the course with 4 10-point essay assignments, a take-home final exam worth 35 points and a 25 point “cushion” for a participation grade to encourage students to engage in the class. Engagement in a course on the topic of law, policy and ethics is very important since the course needs to have a good deal of debate (there are no right or wrong answers), so I think the 25% is a fair reflection of that need. Students get their grades as they go through the semester as soon after finishing the essay assignments and the final exam. I save the participation grade for last to reflect how much a student has contributed to the class. I usually keep those scores close to my vest, wherein lay the problem this year.
To begin with, grading essays is, by its nature, a subjective exercise. I am usually looking for several key concepts in these essays and I tend to reward originality by encouraging essays that capture personal experiences or stories that dovetail with the concept. This year’s concepts were Technology & Social Media, ESG policy, Truth & Lies and Free Markets. While these are not intended to be political issues, in our polarized world of today, its almost impossible not to wander into the political arena. My job is to not proselytize and to encourage open debate that teaches the value of economy of expression and listening to everyone’s viewpoint. My views on the world get communicated through my commentary on issues, so no one is surprised by my leanings. I try to insure that my views do not impact the grading, but who’s to say for certain. As I tell my class, you cannot have ethics without some degree of judgement. Accepting that is part of the lesson.
During the semester, the normal distribution shows itself in many ways. Several students always need to be reminded about essay due dates. Several also do not choose to participate in the online Discussion Forum I have set up and required that they address as a group. I remind students continuously of any gaps in fulfilling their requirements. I even had two students who asked o be allowed to rewrite their essays, which I allowed on the view that that was more learning for them. That is done by individual emails and group announcements, in class and online. I had no one who didn’t ultimately turn in an essay, but I had several that ignored the participation requirements.
As we approached the end of the semester, I spent time reviewing the concepts we have discussed and learned about and prepare the students for the take-home final exam. I even ask them for any suggestions for adjustments to the format or even questions and I occasionally get some input. this year, a student asked if the exam could be anonymously graded. That set me back because it implies that I have a bias in grading, which I try hard not to have. I presume that my avuncular way that tends to focus on the more outgoing students generated that concern. I say that because the student who asked, a fairly serious no-nonsense woman, had gotten good (A- range) scores all semester, so she must have felt deserving of an A and felt her serious demeanor disadvantaged her. I tried to consider an anonymous grading option, but there was not enough time to do that and it would have been very cumbersome, so I told the class I was doing things the old fashioned way without anonymity. Fortunately for us both, that student wrote an excellent exam and she brought her grade up to an A. She may have thought I bought her off, but I told her her work was much better on the final with citations she did not use on her prior essays.
After the exams were all graded and filed, a student who had gotten a B+ for the course, mostly due to non-participation, emailed me a request for regrading. He asked for consideration due to a death in the family earlier in the semester. He offered up a participatory posting that he would have made on the Discussion Forum has he not been emotionally distracted. I thought long and hard about the right thing to do and concluded that he was only a fraction of a point away from an A- (his final score tallied to 89.7) and given that the issue hinged entirely on whether I believed his excuse or not, I finally chose to give him the upgrade.
I understand that my liberal leanings might cause a student to seek a regrading advantage such as this, but my choices are clear to me. I can either assume the best of my students or assume the worst. I pride myself in always being the first kind of teacher and person, so, the choice was no choice at all. The lessons of kindness and trust are lessons that DO pass from one person to another. Occasionally those lessons are abused, but better that than making people with truth on their side to be made cynical by the cruel world. In my teaching and in life, I always opt for a liberal allowance.