op-ed Participation grading does it serve the student body?

Author: Tristan Axelrod

In an anthropology class last semester, final grades were based on four components: a final exam, a midterm exam, response papers, and participation. The three response papers were graded as check, check-minus or no check, and after receiving three of three checks and a 96 on the midterm, I computed that I could receive a B- on the final and still average above the 93 required for a solid A. Having prepared the readings, attended all classes and made a fair number (two to five) of intelligent comments at each, I could only assume that my participation grade would be an A. Lo and behold, I received an 83 on the final - I had to take it shortly after the final completion of my senior thesis, among other things - and was given an A- for the semester. I confronted the professor, who promised to reconsider the grades and send me the full breakdown. I received only a partial breakdown of my final exam grade, which I had not meant to contest in the first place.

Last semester, I took a class with my significant other, and had a different encounter with class participation. Neither of us particularly liked the professor because the grading seemed unpredictable and biased by personal taste. Unlike my significant other, I was unable to conceal my distaste for the professor much of the time, both personally and academically, despite my best efforts to the contrary. Again, I made an effort to meticulously complete each assignment, but my grades added up to a B+. However, this time, strangely enough, participation boosted my grade to an A-.

I have more stories such as this, and could provide anecdotal evidence of cases in which gender, prior personal relationships or the professor's professional and personal insecurities led to a perceived bias in class that pushed my grade at the professor's whim. Furthermore, after many discussions with other students and faculty, I know I am not alone in recognizing this phenomenon.

Clearly in some cases the ability to verbally engage subject material is integral to an assessment of the student's understanding, for instance in seminars and foreign language classes. However, what about the hard sciences, lower level classes in the soft sciences and the fine arts-? Surely in classes meant to foster factual knowledge as opposed to intellectual engagement - and not always even then - assessment of participation is unnecessary and even harmful.

Participation grading provides no incentive for good teaching. If it is the student's responsibility to participate, what incentive does the professor have not to read from a textbook? If the professor cannot engage the information more clearly or deeply than another source, grading based on participation becomes a crutch that sustains professional irrelevance.

Participation grading is not quantifiable, and barely accountable. Depending on the syllabus, professors are able to swing entire letter grades in any direction, knowing that a student's demand for accountability will be mauled by hordes of bureaucracy before it reaches his or her doorstep. By the time the student has the grade it may already be the next semester, and chances are the student won't have the time or energy to stand before a committee and deeply analyze their in-class commentary. Seeing as final papers and exams often go unreturned as well, the student often never knows their participation grade. If he or she does figure it out, it's so far after the fact that end-of-semester reviews become irrelevant as well - but if the professor has tenure, they never were in the first place.

Participation grading does not necessitate quality. Instead, it encourages students to make their one to four comments per class regardless of preparation or interest. This wastes everybody's time, and unless the professor bothers to reprimand students for lackluster commentary (which I have never seen occur, although I hear it happens), we can only assume that inanity is an acceptable substitute for erudition. What incentive is that for anyone else to try? Furthermore, participation grading encourages students to brown-nose in any way possible by playing to the professor's personal biases - be it to subject matter, sexuality or anything else. When nobody knows anyone else's grades and the professor never bothers to assess quality of participation until the end of the semester, everyone makes stuff up, hoping in whatever way that the participation grade will swing in their favor.

Participation grading contributes to a negative academic atmosphere. Besides wasting time with inane commentary, enforced participation can lead to excessive competition and stress. When students feel they must not only understand and engage material but demonstrate that engagement better than others in order to receive a good grade, they often over-prepare. Furthermore, the classroom dynamics of courses such as comprehensive exams and seminars encourage hierarchical feuding among students. Without frequent explanations and assurance from professors, students have no reason not to attempt to demonstrate superiority where mere facility would be appropriate. If students knew they could receive the same grades simply by listening attentively, skipping class when ill or unable to prepare and making only intelligent, well-researched comments, the experience would be more fulfilling for all those involved.

For those who don't care about grades, should participation matter anyway? If a person is content to pay $47,000 just for cafeteria food and dance parties, isn't that punishment enough? Why try to force a person to waste everybody's time?

Unfortunately, I have little time left before I graduate, and I do not intend to spend it fighting the system. However, it consistently bothers me that faculty members exercise quantifiable judgment on students based on unquantifiable standards and little accountability. As I prepare to leave Middlebury with little more than my memories, papers and GPA, the importance of this phenomenon grows in my mind. We need to ask ourselves what we expect to receive from this experience - and each segment of it - and how and why we are allowing others - paying others -to assess us.

Sometimes I find myself saying, "it will be nice to get out of college, where arbitrarily qualified individuals won't have the luxury of projecting onto me their idiosyncrasies, vulnerabilities, insecurities and neuroses in the form of some vague assessment." Then I realize that actually most of life is like that, so it's not so bad. However, Middlebury spends a lot of time and money trying to create a utopia - culturally, environmentally, sexually, academically, etc. - and it seems to me that clamping down on this one issue would bring us just a little bit closer without costing much at all.

Tristan Axelrod '08 is a Music and English major from Washington, D.C.