title: Grading leniency is a removable contaminant of student ratings.
abstract: It is well established that students' evaluative ratings of instruction correlate positively with expected course grades. The authors identify 4 additional data patterns that, collectively, discriminate among 5 theories of the grades--ratings correlation. The presence of all 4 of these markers in student ratings data (obtained at University of Washington) was most consistent with the theory that the grades--ratings correlation is due to an unwanted influence of instructors' grading leniency on ratings. This conclusion justifies use of a statistical correction--illustrated here with actual ratings data--to remove the unwanted inflation of ratings produced by lenient grading. Additional research can profitably seek other inappropriate influences on ratings to identify more opportunities for validity-enhancing adjustments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Washington 98195-1525, USA. agg@u.washington.edu
authors.forename: A G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Greenwald
authors.forename: G M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Gillmore
mesh_terms: D003258:Consumer Behavior; D004650:Employee Performance Appraisal / Q000592:standards*; D006801:Humans; D011361:Professional Competence; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology*; D013663:Teaching / Q000592:standards*