When grading gets hard for you, it’s probably increasingly unfair for students, too

Edutopia

Teachers grading a stack of assignments may notice that they start to feel cranky as the pile shrinks. Now researchers have evidence that working straight through the grading blues can impact students’ final scores.

Researchers gathered over 30 million grading records from Canvas, a learning management system that by default sorts student work in alphabetical order, and found a 0.6-point gap between students whose last names started with A–E and those whose names started with U–Z. Teachers who used reverse alphabetical sorting showed the same pattern, but with the advantage going to the U–Z group. A not-so-subtle shift in attitude was also apparent, say the researchers: The politeness of teacher comments tended to decline as the work day extended.

When grading gets hard for you, it’s probably increasingly unfair for students, too. Consider taking regular breaks as you go, occasionally compare assignments graded early and late in a session for consistency—and consider grading less material, opting for brief feedback instead.