Teaching Philosophy 32:4, December 2009 361
Fair Grades
DARYL CLOSE
Heidelberg University
Abstract: Fair grading is modeled on two fundamental principles. The first
principle is that grading should be impartial and consistent. The second prin-
ciple is that a fair grade should be based on the student s competence in the
academic content of the course. I derive corollary principles of fair grading
from these two basic principles and use them to evaluate common grading
practices. I argue that exempting students from completing certain grade
components is unfair, as is grading on attendance, class rank, deportment,
tardiness, effort, institutional values, moral virtues such as cheerfulness and
helpfulness, and other non-course-content criteria.
What is fair grading? For example, is there a fair way to average a
series of letter grades? Are such practices as grading on the curve,
peer grading, and dropping the lowest quiz score from each student s
course average fair? Is it fair to excuse A students from the final
exam? Should students be graded on attendance, tardiness, or other
forms of comportment? Exactly what is extra credit or make-up
work? Are these practices fair? What is the difference between a hard
grader and an easy grader? Is the former less fair than the latter?
Certain unfairnesses must be reasonably obvious or there would not
be such predictable protests from students when their teachers violate
basic principles of fairness. Other principles of fair grading must cer-
tainly be less obvious, given the wide range of grading practices that
teachers employ. 1
Most professors learn to grade as teaching assistants in graduate
school. While some graduate programs provide substantial training
in teaching one s discipline, many of us learned by imitation. As a
second year graduate student, I was assigned a section of Introduc-
tion to Philosophy arguably one of the most difficult courses in the
undergraduate philosophy curriculum to teach without the least bit
of guidance beyond my own experience as a student. I soon observed
what I thought even then were unfair or unethical grading practices. I
' Teaching Philosophy, 2009. All rights reserved. 0145-5788 pp. 361 398

362 DARYL CLOSE
did my best to grade fairly, but it was hardly a topic of conversation
in the graduate student lounge. As I gained teaching experience over
the years, I became more concerned that my grading should reflect an
understanding of basic moral concepts.
Because we are well-intentioned, conscientious professors, we
assume that we grade our students fairly, regardless of the particular
grading techniques that we use. While we may all be conscientious
and concerned graders, it doesn t follow that we are consequently
fair graders. Since grades function as a form of academic currency 2
that students can use to gain access to other valuable economic goods
such as graduation honors, scholarships, social standing, graduate
admissions, etc., our grading systems should be fair and we should
administer them in a fair way. 3 Moreover, because transcript readers
rely on the accuracy of grades in communicating information about the
student s mastery of course content, 4 instructors have a professional
duty of truthfulness in grading that extends beyond the student. The
overall goal of this paper is to examine such questions, and to look at
how some common grading procedures are ethically problematic when
fairness is taken into account . 5
My primary approach will be to develop a model of what grades
should be and then identify a short list of principles of fair grading. I
expect some of my conclusions to be provocative. I have practiced at
one time or another grading policies that I now believe to be unfair or
violations of professional duties. This paper is presented as a challenge
to others who, like me, are greatly concerned to treat their students
fairly and to fulfill their professional duties as teachers. My conclusions
should not be taken to be a list of necessary and sufficient conditions
for fair grading. At best, I will establish a partial list of what I believe
are necessary conditions . 6
I. Grading and Evaluation of Learning
It is clear that evaluating student mastery of course content is not the
same as assigning a grade to a student. For one thing, evaluation of
students is very old, while grades are historically very recent in the
U.S., they appear in the mid-1800s. Plato may have frequently, even
continuously, evaluated his Academy students, but there is no record of
Plato issuing grades. Furthermore, while we may evaluate our students
without grading them, a grade may be issued to a student without any
evaluation of the student s learning. Such a grade is the epitome of
professional misconduct in grading and is an intuitively unfair grade,
but it is a grade nonetheless as long as it was officially recorded by an
institutional agent on the student s grade record or transcript. Viewed
as a species of judgment, an evaluation can be made without a public