🧵 Grading based on name order
Anonymous at Sat, 20 Apr 2024 18:39:10 UTC No. 16137587
When students were graded based upon alphabetical order, the names that come up first were graded higher.
When the orders are reversed, the names that come up first were also graded higher.
Anonymous at Sat, 20 Apr 2024 18:39:54 UTC No. 16137589
>>16137587
The brain puts more effort into first few and then people getting tired/lazily rewarding the later people.
Anonymous at Sat, 20 Apr 2024 18:50:19 UTC No. 16137604
>>16137589
The study found that having a first name which starts with A, B or C helps you, which is the opposite of what you're trying to say.
Anonymous at Sat, 20 Apr 2024 19:22:52 UTC No. 16137646
>>16137604
>Their research uncovered a clear pattern of a decline in grading quality as graders evaluate more assignments. Wang said students whose surnames start with A, B, C, D or E received a 0.3-point higher grade out of 100 possible points than compared with when they were graded randomly. Likewise, students with later-in-the-alphabet surnames received a 0.3-point lower grade — creating a 0.6-point gap.
>Wang noted that for a small group of graders (about 5%) that grade from Z to A, the grade gap flips as expected: A-E students are worse off, while W-Z students receive higher grades relative to what they would receive when graded randomly. The researchers said such observations confirm their hypothesis that it’s the order of grading that leads to the initial gap in grades.
https://record.umich.edu/articles/s
When orders are reversed, the W-Z group got higher grades
Anonymous at Sat, 20 Apr 2024 19:56:27 UTC No. 16137707
>>16137646
Glad my last name starts with an M, and therefore no matter whether they start with A or Z they'll equally shittily grade my paper.
Anonymous at Sat, 20 Apr 2024 20:11:54 UTC No. 16137742
>>16137646
>>16137589
It still seems like "lazily rewarding the later people" is the opposite of what is happening.
Also, did they compare positive vs negative grading? I notice that when I'm grading I often give the later people a better grade because I'm not as careful in checking whether they actually hit the milestones we set for them.
But maybe STEM and liberal arts are just different in this aspect.