Why are grades due so soon...

[Caracal]

I'm in the midst of grading hell. I've given one final Friday, am giving two more on Monday and then a last one Wednesday. I've also a ton of papers of various sorts to grade. All of this has to be finished a week from Monday before noon. I have a toddler so it isn't like weekends are a great time to get work done. It'll be fine, I'll get it done on time, but every semester I wonder if this is really necessary.

The university always claims that grades have to be in so quickly because of graduation and letters that need to be sent out about academic status and probation. I understand that, but would giving us an extra three days or something really matter that much? If they sent me a list of students who are planning to graduate, I'd be happy to submit those grades early. Am I missing something about a deadline that really can't be moved or is this just one of those things where people in administration make deadlines based on what is slightly more convenient for them and don't much care that it imposes a pretty significant burden on faculty?

[polly_mer]

Faculty are people, much like students.  While it seems as though a couple extra days would work out well for everyone, it's never going to be just a couple extra days.  It already seems like your institution is pretty generous in letting you go for more than 48 hours past the end of the final for the class.  Chasing down everyone to get everything submitted in the required format so the next part of the process can start is a task that registrar offices sigh heavily about every term.  My favorite story is how the dean of a regional comprehensive showed up at faculty houses Christmas Eve one year to stand over people while they entered the missing grades to make the point that the grades were so late (more than 48 hours after the end of the final exam period) that it was worth the dean's time to get those grades in so the other people in the university could do their jobs.

Think about how many moving pieces have to fall into place to get everything for this term wrapped up.  You mention graduation and academic status and probation.  There's a whole process to be done after grades are submitted.  Yes, some parts are easily automated, even for 20 000 students.  Other parts require hearings that will need all the information distributed to the reviewers with enough time to read, think, and be ready for the hearings. 

In addition to the hearings that can be planned in advance, there will be students who file formal grievances and exceptions.  While a dean etc. can block off big chunks of time to be ready for the individual students, they can't be on top of each individual case until all the paperwork is filed, which can't happen until all the grades are in, have been sent to the students, and then the students have followed the parts of the process that happen before a formal appeal to the dean.

While faculty turn in grades and then can put their emails on holiday break, most of the rest of the institution remains doing their jobs with a closure (maybe) over Christmas through New Year's Day.  It may seem like a lot of time before the spring term starts, but even a whole calendar month is often not enough to get done everything that has to be done (prerequisites checked, financial aid readjusted based on the fall information, all the other terms that are out-of-sync with on-campus including a winterim with some of the same students who just failed and now shouldn't be in that course). 

In addition, as LarryC pointed out years ago and most of us with faculty experience know: you only have to do detailed grading on people who are borderline passing.  If you've designed the course appropriately, then most grades are set by the time the end of the term comes.  You don't have to do detailed grading on every paper or even every exam.  That person who cannot mathematically pass even with 120% on the final/last paper gets an F recorded straight up; don't waste your time grading that.  Skim to confirm that most people are doing the same as they did the rest of the semester and record the appropriate grade.

Seldom do students ask for their finals or term papers returned.  You can make anyone who does request wait until you return in the spring and then grade with great detail just before that appointment.  If it turns out at that point that you need to update a grade, then you can update it then.  But, really, only the F to D or D to C matters in the big picture.  The B+ to A- is something that seems like it matters, but it doesn't.  If that B+ were truly an A, then that would have come through during the whole term, not just at the end.

Thus, asking for another couple days tends to be a burden to everyone in the process after grades are submitted and seems like faculty are poor planners because they didn't have to wait until the very end for anything except literally the final exam.  That last paper could have been two weeks before the final and been just fine.

[spork]

I used to feel your pain. These tricks have greatly simplified the end of my semesters:

• Most of the course grade is determined by what happens in the first two-thirds of the course. Final exam becomes a low-stakes exercise worth perhaps five percent of the course grade, which allows me to notify some students "It is mathematically impossible for you to pass the course, you should withdraw" before the withdrawal deadline, or conversely, "You have already earned an A in the course; taking the final exam is entirely up to you but won't affect your grade."
• Like polly said, I don't waste my time worrying about whether an exam deserves an 82 or an 84. I grade according to, for example, 4 X 3 rubrics. The criteria that I'm assessing the exam against are either present in the student's work or they're not.
  
• I can click on a rubric far faster than I can write comments. Any comments are limited to a few sentences, based on boilerplate that I paste.
• I use the university's deadline for posting grades as a reason not to grant any extensions for "late" assignments/exams. The policy here is that an "Incomplete" has to be arranged with the professor before the semester ends, which means while classes are still in session. You snooze, you lose.

[Parasaurolophus]

My doctoral institution told us which students were graduating and needed their grades sooner. They gave us until the first week of January for everyone else.

Here, my deadline is like yours, and it feels horrific. Plus, not only do I have to submit my grades online, I also have to fill out a paper spreadsheet by hand for every grade for every student, have a colleague compare it to my online submission, and then submit that, too. That alone takes a full day.

[downer]

Here, my deadline is like yours, and it feels horrific. Plus, not only do I have to submit my grades online, I also have to fill out a paper spreadsheet by hand for every grade for every student, have a colleague compare it to my online submission, and then submit that, too. That alone takes a full day.

Wow, that sounds like an infernal scheme designed to waste time and probably introduce as many errors as it prevents.

Would they have the same scheme if Deans had to do the same work I wonder?

[marshwiggle]

I'm in the midst of grading hell. I've given one final Friday, am giving two more on Monday and then a last one Wednesday. I've also a ton of papers of various sorts to grade.

In addition to what everyone else has suggested, don't give assignments that need to be handed in right at the end and need to be graded. Students are busy and stressed, you don't need the extra work, and as others have said, most of the grade has already been determined by that point anyway. (To the instructors who are perpetually disorganized and wind up having to cram in all kinds of content and assignments at the end, GET REAL and don't keep doing this!)  If you need to evaluate something to do with the very last material, figure out how to make it super easy to grade.

[AvidReader]

In addition, as LarryC pointed out years ago and most of us with faculty experience know: you only have to do detailed grading on people who are borderline passing.  If you've designed the course appropriately, then most grades are set by the time the end of the term comes.  You don't have to do detailed grading on every paper or even every exam.  That person who cannot mathematically pass even with 120% on the final/last paper gets an F recorded straight up; don't waste your time grading that.  Skim to confirm that most people are doing the same as they did the rest of the semester and record the appropriate grade.

• Like polly said, I don't waste my time worrying about whether an exam deserves an 82 or an 84. I grade according to, for example, 4 X 3 rubrics. The criteria that I'm assessing the exam against are either present in the student's work or they're not.
  

These changed my life in my early years of teaching. Some students could skip my final and end up with their existing course grade. So I largely grade my written (humanities) finals with "step grading": 100, 92, 82, 72, 62, 50, 30, 0 (students mastered all, most, many, quite a few, just enough, half, barely any, and none of the skills I was testing on the final essay, respectively). I grade generously. If I'm looking at physical papers, I stack them in categories. If anyone is really borderline, I look at that essay against the next category in whichever direction I am leaning, and if it's a tough call, I split the difference. Then I move on. Like spork, I give minimal comments.

I also love placing oral assignments in the final exam slot. When a course is content-based rather than writing-focused, I often schedule presentations or oral defenses in the final exam slot. Those are much quicker to grade, and--honestly--a lot more fun. (Presentations are shared; defenses are individual). I have a big rubric sheet, circle each skill or objective as it is demonstrated or met, and add up the total at the end. If all the students will be together, I also grade attentiveness and respectful participation during classmates' exams, as appropriate (e.g. don't text, and ask a few questions if you can).

AR.

[Caracal]

Faculty are people, much like students.  While it seems as though a couple extra days would work out well for everyone, it's never going to be just a couple extra days.  It already seems like your institution is pretty generous in letting you go for more than 48 hours past the end of the final for the class. 

You'll have to forgive me for not finding it particularly generous when I have 160 students and no TA, but ok.

Seldom do students ask for their finals or term papers returned.  You can make anyone who does request wait until you return in the spring and then grade with great detail just before that appointment.  If it turns out at that point that you need to update a grade, then you can update it then.  But, really, only the F to D or D to C matters in the big picture.  The B+ to A- is something that seems like it matters, but it doesn't.  If that B+ were truly an A, then that would have come through during the whole term, not just at the end.

The feedback, I do that. I tell students they can send me an email if they want detailed feedback on their papers and I'll get it to them after finals. As for the rest...I don't worry about comments and I rely on a rubric which helps a lot for exams, but I'm not going to skimp on actual grading. Among other things, I'm not sure I'd keep my job real long if I was constantly changing final grades.

Thus, asking for another couple days tends to be a burden to everyone in the process after grades are submitted and seems like faculty are poor planners because they didn't have to wait until the very end for anything except literally the final exam.  That last paper could have been two weeks before the final and been just fine.

Sure, I could do a better job sometimes of placing assignments, although I'd argue that it can be harder than it seems within the schedule of a semester sometimes. I have a lot of students and a lot of grading and things tend to pile up no matter when I schedule them. I'm not arguing that I'm the world's most organized instructor, but I also always get the damn grades in on time.

Basically, what I'm reading here is what I suspected. It is pretty easy to schedule things in ways that are pretty burdensome on other people, but make your life a bit easier. I'm not arguing that all the moving pieces you discuss aren't important, or that administrators schedules aren't compressed. I just suspect all of this could still work out ok with an extra two days for grades. But, I get pretty grumpy this time of year and maybe I'm just looking for enemies.

[spork]

[. . . ]

I just suspect all of this could still work out ok with an extra two days for grades.

[. . . ]

Don't know if this will help you feel any better, but . . . I see the lack of communication across units about what people are doing and why they are doing it as one of the, if not the most, critical organizational failures of universities. Here it's stuff like "a data system that faculty are required to use is being replaced by another system that the registrar deems 'better than the old one' -- but no faculty were consulted about the change or told why it was necessary." Another classic is "IT will be doing maintenance; email, course rosters, etc., might be unavailable on the morning of X date" -- when X is at the end of the semester when grades are due.

(I think there is an "administration policy fails" thread somewhere on the new fora.)

[Caracal]

[. . . ]

I just suspect all of this could still work out ok with an extra two days for grades.

[. . . ]

Don't know if this will help you feel any better, but . . . I see the lack of communication across units about what people are doing and why they are doing it as one of the, if not the most, critical organizational failures of universities. Here it's stuff like "a data system that faculty are required to use is being replaced by another system that the registrar deems 'better than the old one' -- but no faculty were consulted about the change or told why it was necessary." Another classic is "IT will be doing maintenance; email, course rosters, etc., might be unavailable on the morning of X date" -- when X is at the end of the semester when grades are due.

(I think there is an "administration policy fails" thread somewhere on the new fora.)

I think that's right. My favorite new example of that is that we are supposed to now have a "meaningful evaluation of student work" graded three weeks after the start of all intro classes. I'm sure that sounded reasonable to somebody and I'm on board with students getting early feedback, but to have exams for three different classes graded by then I'd have to give an exam two weeks after the first day of class, and this semester that includes MLK Day. It would be hard for us to have covered enough to have an exam. If it was just a week later, it would actually be reasonable enough and I could have a real exam graded so students could know if they were struggling. As it is, since nobody defines "meaningful" I'm just going to pretend that online reading quizzes are meaningful measures of how a student is doing and call it a day.

[polly_mer]

Let me try again with one concrete example if the take-home message seems to be "the administrators are just transferring the burden and could choose differently".

Let's just take the financial aid process.  The institution faces significant penalties for putting even the nail of the pinky toe over the line and therefore everything has to be in accord with the process.  In recent years, changes that were meant to ensure students stay on track made a huge amount of work for the financial aid folks.

One of the most interesting examples is that students who are full-time on the traditional measures may not be full-time for federal financial aid.  Why?  Because the courses being taken must be necessary for the student's progress to currently declared degree.  Thus, even though all sane people will agree that a particular student is much better served as a happy art major instead of an unhappy biology/pre-med major, changing that major may have non-obvious financial aid implications.

From my time as advisor to many at-risk science students, I'm very familiar with situations like https://www.nasfaa.org/news-item/8953/pop_quiz_Title_IV_funds_program .  All those D's count in the "electives" bucket, even though the student would now much rather take true, interesting electives. 

It's also entirely possible for students to have been full-time for federal financial aid for several terms, stick with the same good major, and not be making satisfactory academic progress per the official rules.  The rules on that vary school-to-school and maybe even program-to-program.  However, when letters go out and personal appointments must be made, not all the students who find themselves on the warning list will be those who are the ones that professors this term would identify as being at risk for poor academic performance.

In terms of process after grades have been submitted by faculty, there are weeks of work necessary by the financial aid office that are not nearly as automated as running the relevant report and then taking the stack of envelopes to the post office.  The process by design has several days (if not weeks) at each step so that students or their representatives can file appeals and each appeal will get a special individual hearing.  That time cannot be shortened without opening the institution up for lawsuits that would be a slam-dunk on process for the students' lawyers.

For places that have a lot of struggling students, the time necessary to have individual meetings with every student who has now been yellow flagged and needs good personalized advice for spring often is a higher institutional priority (and really should be) a much higher priority than any of the really detailed grading now at the end of a term that doesn't help student learning.  Again, for those who care about student learning, the emphasis is on feedback through the term so students can improve, not confirming that a grade is a N4 instead of an N6.

If the goal is to help the students who are on the bubble, getting them the grades earlier so they can course correct for spring earlier is much more helpful than ensuring they are not shorted a couple points that can't matter mathematically.  Detailed feedback during the term for improvement is a good thing for the students; detailed grading at the end of the term for that last 10-20% is not a good use of anyone's effort except for the handful of students on the D/F border for gen ed or C/D border for a major class.

[Caracal]

Let me try again with one concrete example if the take-home message seems to be "the administrators are just transferring the burden and could choose differently".

Let's just take the financial aid process.  The institution faces significant penalties for putting even the nail of the pinky toe over the line a
In terms of process after grades have been submitted by faculty, there are weeks of work necessary by the financial aid office that are not nearly as automated as running the relevant report and then taking the stack of envelopes to the post office.  The process by design has several days (if not weeks) at each step so that students or their representatives can file appeals and each appeal will get a special individual hearing.  That time cannot be shortened without opening the institution up for lawsuits that would be a slam-dunk on process for the students' lawyers.

If the goal is to help the students who are on the bubble, getting them the grades earlier so they can course correct for spring earlier is much more helpful than ensuring they are not shorted a couple points that can't matter mathematically.  Detailed feedback during the term for improvement is a good thing for the students; detailed grading at the end of the term for that last 10-20% is not a good use of anyone's effort except for the handful of students on the D/F border for gen ed or C/D border for a major class.

Sure, but broadly this does seem to go to Spork's point. It may well be possible that Monday at noon is the last possible moment grades can get in and all this can be done. However, my primary experience of dealing with academic affairs is various deadlines for evaluations of students throughout the semester that make no sense within the context of teaching. For example, why are midterm grades always due before spring or fall break? I'm sure there's some rational on the administrative side for it, but what it means for my students is that for many of them the "midterm grade" is based on one exam, reading and attendance. For me to get all of my second exams graded before spring or fall break, I'd basically have to schedule them all the week before and kill myself trying to grade them on time. So I tend to be suspicious, rightly or wrongly.

Also, I really don't give feedback on end of the semester stuff unless students ask for it and I try not to sweat the grading too much. However, while it makes sense for people in academic affairs to be primarily concerned with students at risk of failing and not worry about kids between an A and a B, those are the students who are going to be writing me complaining about their grade once I turn it in and might complain to my chair if they are grumpy enough. So, while I'm not writing comments on exams, I do need to make sure I'm being careful and fair enough to defend those grades.

[marshwiggle]

Sure, but broadly this does seem to go to Spork's point. It may well be possible that Monday at noon is the last possible moment grades can get in and all this can be done. However, my primary experience of dealing with academic affairs is various deadlines for evaluations of students throughout the semester that make no sense within the context of teaching. For example, why are midterm grades always due before spring or fall break?

Here there are different drop dates during the term, and the later they are, the less tuition gets refunded. So rules about "substantial evaluation" of students before those dates is so that students who are doing poorly will know and can drop earlier when there is a cost savings to them.


It's still not unheard of for a course to have one midterm and a final and nothing else. If the midterm is late, then a student has no idea whatsoever of how they're doing until after the midterm. If they don't find that out until after the final drop date, that's really bad.

Even from the point of time management, the sooner a poorly performing student drops a course the sooner they can refocus effort on the courses that remain.

[Caracal]

Sure, but broadly this does seem to go to Spork's point. It may well be possible that Monday at noon is the last possible moment grades can get in and all this can be done. However, my primary experience of dealing with academic affairs is various deadlines for evaluations of students throughout the semester that make no sense within the context of teaching. For example, why are midterm grades always due before spring or fall break?

Here there are different drop dates during the term, and the later they are, the less tuition gets refunded. So rules about "substantial evaluation" of students before those dates is so that students who are doing poorly will know and can drop earlier when there is a cost savings to them.


It's still not unheard of for a course to have one midterm and a final and nothing else. If the midterm is late, then a student has no idea whatsoever of how they're doing until after the midterm. If they don't find that out until after the final drop date, that's really bad.

Even from the point of time management, the sooner a poorly performing student drops a course the sooner they can refocus effort on the courses that remain.

Right, and I agree with all of that, but if administrators want any of this to be effective, they should actually be communicating with faculty across the university about what actually makes sense within the context of classes. I can appreciate that there are lots of moving pieces outside of my individual classes, but it often feels like the people who put these deadlines in place have basically no awareness of how classes and grading work. I'm basically being asked to have an exam after 4 classes, one of which is the first day.

The end result is going to just be that I, and other faculty members, are just going to redefine "meaningful" into something that is manageable and students who might be struggling aren't going to actually get flagged unless they are just totally disengaged from the class. And I guess everyone gets to feel like they are doing the right things about retention.

It reminds me a lot of how I've heard people describe assessment processes. Accreditors ask for departments to show evidence of things that you probably can't find evidence for, the department basically manipulates the numbers to show whatever silly thing they are supposed to show, everybody pretends not to notice that this is what is happening, shoves the whole silly thing in a file and then goes home.

[polly_mer]

I think that's right. My favorite new example of that is that we are supposed to now have a "meaningful evaluation of student work" graded three weeks after the start of all intro classes. I'm sure that sounded reasonable to somebody and I'm on board with students getting early feedback, but to have exams for three different classes graded by then I'd have to give an exam two weeks after the first day of class, and this semester that includes MLK Day.

Years ago, LarryC had a plan for that as well:

Have a big test, or better yet a writing assignment, due very early, the second or third week. (Important: Schedule the assignment before the drop date at your university.) Mark the heck out of the papers and make everyone rewrite them. This will shake out about 10% of the class--the 10% who would have been slackers and whiners and have given you bad evaluations. It also makes the remaining students prioritize your class over their other, less important studies.

Reference: https://www.chronicle.com/forums/index.php/topic,36401.msg522451.html#msg522451

<on preview> I'm just going to say what I'm thinking and let the chips fall where they may.

I've been a faculty member, the administrator in charge of assessment, the administrator in charge of institutional effectiveness, and the administrator in charge of accreditation.

I was brought up under the idea that a minimum of 3 hours of study outside of class per week per credit was standard.  The federal Department of Ed guidelines indicate 2 hours of study is the minimum expectation.  Thus, according to my calculation*, a three-credit class comes up to a minimum of 18 hours of work in the first two weeks and could be a minimum of 24 hours of work, depending on institution.  What are the students doing for all that time that doesn't come up to one submitted paper, a first go at an exam, or some other "meaningful evaluation of student work" that can be returned to the students in week three?

I get that grading is a huge time sink, but most of my classes included a lab report and problem set due from every student every week.  I did auto grading on reading quizzes or checkmarks on reading responses.  Science for teachers, the students who needed the most feedback as being the farthest out of their comfort zone, had multiple graded assignments every week and did have a test in week 3 along with a first draft of a paper due. 

Thus, on so many levels, I have to wonder how the personal logic works knowing that:

a) non-elite students need a lot of support
b) the recognition that those students need a lot of support at least for intro classes has been widespread enough to get into required federal monitoring requirements for Title IV financial aid as well as keeping accreditation by requiring enough work from students for credit

and yet
c) the pushback is "that's not how college works in my intro classes".

I still remember how I felt when visiting a philosophy colleague as she pointed to a pile of grading with "oh, it's essay 2 week and that's my stack" and seeing that her four-times-per-term stack was smaller than my weekly stack.  The more time I spent with assessing student work across the institution and spreading the word about various standards to keep us in compliance with all our obligations, the more I understood why my students tended to be quite angry in my general education classes that took seriously the obligations of learning critical thinking, communication, and other soft skills through practice with frequent feedback.

I'll say it again: if you're not being paid enough to do the job, which includes regular feedback to students and participating in the bureaucratic processes, then go do something else and let the system adjust so that people are being paid for their efforts.

* 2 weeks*(2 hours of outside study/credit * 3 credits + 3 hours of class time) = 18 hours