Grading Methods in Light of Supreme Court Ruling

Subject: Grading Methods in Light of Supreme Court Ruling
Date: Thu, Dec 14 2000 00:00:02 EST

Cheryl Torrontor, PackyHumor's resident legal pundit, got this from one of her professors. Her only comment: "Oy. I really hope he's kidding."

She did, however, have a word of explanation to give us: "For the uninformed, the `staircase method' of essay grading is to stand at the top of the stairs and throw the exams up in the air, with the exams that land on one step getting an A, another step a B, etc. It's the standard complaint about the grading procedures here at the law school."

Grading a la Justice Scalia

"I have had what I believe is an important legal insight that has significant consequences in this season of grading exams, and I wish to share that insight with my colleagues in case it informs your approach to that task. In light of various legal challenges to the manual recounting of ballots in Florida, I have concluded that it would be improper for me to grade my final exams, and any further effort in that direction will forthwith cease. My reasons for this conclusion follow.

"First, it is axiomatic that grading seventy essay exams requires effort spanning quite a number of days. It is also clear that my grading effort would encompass times in which I would be able to bring greater or lesser attention to bear on the task, depending upon time of day, amount of sleep the night before, recent alcohol consumption, or random external distractions. Accordingly, it is not only possible but almost inevitable that student answers of essentially equal quality will be graded differently -- not dramatically differently, perhaps, but differently enough to change the result in a close competition. Putting aside issues of whether state action is present, there is a serious question in these circumstances that my grading of exams would deprive at least some students of the equal protection of law, and would result in unjustifiable discrimination among students.

"The solution to this problem, naturally, is to rely on more traditional machine-based or mechanical methods that are not prone to human error. My own plan is to use that tried and true grading technique, handed down (almost literally) from generation to generation of academics, known conventionally as the "staircase method." Other such methods may commend themselves to you, but I caution that you ensure that they do not require the exercise of human -- and therefore frail and inaccurate -- judgment.

"One could always argue, of course -- as Vice President Gore's counsel have argued -- that reviewing the exams and assigning grades based upon manual inspection should proceed, subject to a subsequent, more deliberate determination as to whether the resulting grades should be allowed to stand despite the potential problems alluded to previously. This facile suggestion, of course, masks a risk of irreparable injury: specifically, if it were to turn out that certain students received notably higher grades than others, those students' expectations would be mistakenly -- indeed, cruelly -- raised were it to turn out that the manually-assigned grades had to be set aside due to inappropriate discrimination. In fact, if the results of manual grading became known it is likely that the very legitimacy of mechanical grading methods could be undermined. Under the circumstances, then, the best course is simply not to start manual grading at all."