Students say they are frustrated by one of campus’s biggest mysteries, according to a recent survey conducted by the Collegian.
Students do not know who grades their papers for Center for Constructive Alternatives seminars, and they allege that the anonymity leads to inconsistent and what they believe to be unfair grading.
The CCA office outsources the grading of some papers to qualified, yet unidentified, individuals who grade the papers and offer feedback.
“Someone who has attended the lectures and has a lot of experience grading and writing is qualified to figure out if a paper is a good paper on the CCA,” Director of Programs for External Affairs Matt Bell said.
Graders and their backgrounds are not disclosed to students participating in the CCA, and a list of graders’ names has not been released despite requests by the Collegian.
“The reason we don’t release the names of the graders is that they’re specifically hired just to grade,” Bell said. “We don’t want students going and asking them about their grades.”
Anonymity creates an aura of mystery around the grading process that students say is frustrating. In a three-day survey of 100 anonymous students, conducted by the Collegian in February, only 11 respondents said they approve of grader anonymity.
“Anonymous grades encourage careless, slipshod grading,” a student said. “A CCA grader might only see my paper for five minutes, but the grade sticks with me for years.”
Fifty-nine of the respondents answered, “I disapprove. I want to know where the grades are coming from.”
This element of anonymity sets CCAs apart from all other courses on campus, and participating in the seminars is required for graduation requirements.
“In a class, there is an instructor in front of you,” Provost David Whalen said. “There is a clear link between the person you know and the product that you get back. CCAs behave very differently because you’re not sure who is attached to what you’re getting back.”
According to Bell, the majority of the graders have been faculty members or past faculty members. Occasionally, qualified staff members and Ph.D. candidates working on their dissertations have also been selected to grade.
Graders are not required to have any specific expertise or familiarity with the CCA topic, but they must attend CCA lectures or watch them online.
A grading rubric is provided to graders by the CCA office, and it remains largely consistent over most CCAs. Papers are supposed to be graded based on a student’s response to the prompt (worth 60 points); formatting, grammar, and clarity (worth 20 points); citations from at least three speakers (worth 10 points); and a logical, clearly-stated thesis (worth 10 points).
The variety of people grading the papers requires extra effort to maintain equal application of grading rubric to each paper, Bell said.
“People apply rubrics differently, so of course there isn’t perfect consistency,” Whalen said.
Bell said he and his colleagues at the CCA office review each paper’s grade to check for anomalies in graders’ application of the rubric.
“If we notice the grader is a little tougher, we’ll look at some of their papers and make sure they’re in accordance with the guidelines we’ve given them,” Bell said. “If we notice they’re a little easier, we’ll do the same.”
Students say they perceive the grading rubric is applied inconsistently, however: 43 respondents said they believed the grading rubric of CCA papers was either “somewhat unfair” or “very unfair or frustrating.”
“There’s no real clarity on how they grade anything. It feels like a crapshoot,” one respondent said.
“It’s extremely random,” another student wrote. “Some students do well and other not. Doesn’t seem to have any reason to it.”
Comments on the returned papers also often frustrate students: 49 students said that comments and feedback they had received on returned CCA papers were either “somewhat unhelpful” or “very unhelpful or frustrating.”
But if students believe they received an unfair grade, they have the option to submit an appeal through the CCA office by providing their name, the topic of the CCA, and an argument of why their paper should have received a different grade.
Appeals are handled internally by the CCA office — students do not meet or discuss their grades with the graders, according to Bell.
Many students also said in the survey that they are irritated by not being able to tailor their papers to the audience grading them since they don’t know who the graders are.
“I wish we knew who they were, so we could write appropriately,” a respondent wrote. “Different teachers have different expectations across departments. It’s kind of infuriating.”
“I also strongly feel that it’s not accurate,” the student continued.
Other students commented that grader anonymity was “disappointing,” “not homogenous,” “cowardly,” and “unfair.”
“We’re not trying to keep a secret. Ultimately the responsibility is mine,” Bell said, encouraging students to come to him before, during, and after the writing process for clarifications.
“I think the lack of a body in front of you whom you know grading your paper gives rise to all kinds of speculative fears of randomness and inconsistency,” Whalen said.
