Grading by Jury: Accurate and Consistent

Abstract

Of greatest concern to the department was the charge that jury-grading was racist in nature; additionally, some teachers and administrators thought the system in fringed on academic freedom. Although incomplete, the data we have suggest that while many persons perceived jury-grading to be a failure, the experiment did, in fact, achieve one major goal for which we strove, that is, the objective, accurate, and consistent evaluation of student performance on written themes. For many years students and faculty have viewed the English Department at ASU as having a wide variety of grading practices and standards. In a 28-person depart ment, some variety, of course, is desirable, but in freshman composition the range of grading possibilities was almost ridiculous. In several classes over a two-year