The relationship between grading and teacher judgment

Abstract This paper presents two studies examining the interrelation of grading and teacher judgment. Study 1 revealed the structure of teacher judgment two teachers and their classes, based on data from long-term ethnographic research. Through inductive analysis of teacher statements about students, four criteria by which teachers judge their students were identified: performance, aptitude, effort, and communicativeness. Using quantitative data from 639 students and 32 teachers, Study 2 explored the relationship between the criteria for teacher judgment identified in Study 1 and the grade assigned to a particular student. Evaluation questionnaires that teachers completed about their students were used. All four criteria identified in Study 1 positively correlated with the grade, but as the multiple linear regression analysis showed, the final grade was most influenced by the category of performance. However, a teacher’s perception of a student’s performance did not always fully align with their performance as measured by a standardized test.