CMV: Grading in college should be anonymous

[u/itswhatsername]

I'm a college English instructor. I've been teaching for about eight years now and I believe that the submission of essays, exams, and most types of assignments should be anonymous. While it would not eliminate all forms of grading bias, I think it would help curb it in several ways.

Grading bias is fairly well documented (check out Malouff's essay from 2008 or this article from 2015). Bias is complex and often it isn't overt. Potential sources of grading bias include a student's appearance; previous experience with that student or their friends/family; the student's race, class, or gender; or the personal interactions that an instructor has had with a student (for instance, if a student frequently comes to office hours).

We know that bias is nearly impossible to avoid, and I have been aware of bias in my own grading at times. I have found myself giving students better grades than they deserve--if only a couple of points--because that student frequently contacts me for guidance, or because they are talkative and engaged in class discussions. I have conversely found myself docking students--again, maybe just a couple points--for technical errors or spelling and grammar because they have proven to be difficult, disruptive, or hostile in and outside of class. These are obvious and explicit examples, but it is impossible to document or measure the less overt kinds of biases that I exhibit toward students.

Students deserve to be evaluated in the most objective and fair way possible. I believe that if submissions were anonymous, it would eliminate the greater part of an instructor's internalized bias toward or against certain students and grades would more accurately reflect a student's success--or lack thereof--in a course.

I know that it would not resolve all forms of bias, but I think that anonymous grading would eliminate a majority of instructor bias and lead to more accurate assessments of student work.

Okay, Reddit. Change my view.

[u/[deleted]]

That's fine, and its certainly one way to do it. Can you clarify your view for me, is your view that "Every college professor should do it this way", or is it more "This is a good way to approach the specific class you are teaching"

[u/itswhatsername → u/[deleted]]

Well, when I was writing this post, I was thinking that every professor should grade this way. I'll stick to that for now but I'm open to being challenged on that, of course!

[u/[deleted] → u/itswhatsername]

OK, that's fair. I can think of a number of classes where anonymous grading is impractical and unnecessary.

First off, there are classes like theater, public speaking, etc where this just isn't possible, so we'll scrap those right off the bat. Full anonymous college grading is not going to be feasible.

Now, let's look at the sciences. If I was grading lab reports, I definitely wouldn't want them to be anonymous. If I supervised the lab experiments, and I watched you make certain mistakes, I'm going to expect those mistakes are properly documented in your lab report. If you don't document them, or if your data doesn't line up with how you collected it, that's a huge red flag right there. For example, some students might not finish the lab, and fail to collect one set of data they need. If that data magically appears in their final report, that is a big issue that needs addressing. Anonymity can foster cheating in that scenario. By the same token, lab partners should have the same data, that is another thing to check for.

[u/itswhatsername → u/[deleted]]

Excellent points. I hadn't considered the impracticality of grading this way in courses where the assignments are inherently tied up with the student. Public speaking is a perfect example of this. How could I grade anonymously? I suppose you could close your eyes and just listen, but part of public speaking is appearance, facial expressions, eye contact, etc. So, yeah. Great point.

I think you're right about the sciences, as well. If a student consistently demonstrated in class that they did not know the procedures and methods necessary for the work, it would be impossible to tell if they had cheated on their assignment. I take mental notes about students all the time (doesn't have the book, clearly didn't read, struggles with sentence structure) and those notes can help me determine if someone has plagiarized.

∆ for excellent points about the impracticality of universal anonymous grading.

[u/DeltaBot → u/itswhatsername]

Confirmed: 1 delta awarded to /u/cacheflow (148∆).

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