5.8 Expectations Of Student Performance

We have expectations about what students will do, have to do on an exam, in a course. Within a program, there are pass/fail/proceed thresholds which are course oriented and there are term goals as well for passing the term, proceeding to the next level.

Our expectations and what we assign as 'grades' can impact the reputation of the school, program, and course. It can impact the expectations of students, what awards and grants the student might be eligible for, what opportunities the students have through the process, and what might happen after graduation.



There can be department and faculty guidelines, and sometimes mandates about the marking schemes, assessment styles. We think that setting a one-size-fits-all model for assessment within a department is foolish on a good day, self-serving on a questionable day, and abusive to students on almost all days. The assessments and criteria should match the learning outcomes and methods used. The instructor's job is to appropriate facilitate students learning (you cannot learn for them) and to assess the level of mastery attained. We use the word mastery with some care, and it is relative improvement compared to the start of term; undergraduates are not true masters upon graduation, neither are most graduate students.

The expectations for what an average student can be expected to learn in a course using average effort and what the average mark/grade/assessment will be given has changed over time; at all levels, primary, secondary, post-secondary, and graduate school ( USA Today, Forbes ). While you might not like it, you have pressure to join the herd. It is not the fault of the student that class averages have gone from 68 in the late 1960's to 80+ in 202x. That only 2-3 students would get a term average 90+ sixty years ago and now there are schools where almost every student gets in the 90's, if not 100s. This has been a terrible thing and has affected student expectations, how students are assessed. For example, mark inflation has impacted how much red ink is used and the level/type/amount of critical feedback given to students. It is hard to justify a high mark with lots of red ink, so the red ink is reduced to justify the mark. This helps create the over-confidence of students noted by Magnus and Peresetsky (2017) ( Grade Expecations: Rationality and Overconfidence ).

Whatever the 'average' is, it should be consistent from course to course, term to term if it is to have any meaning. What an average student can do, average effort. This is the only way that someone without insider knowledge can view a transcript. It would also help to know if a course focuses on cognitive complexity or just book-smart deliverables, but that is another issue. It would also help to have a score for each course in terms of quality and the ability to deliver on the learning outcomes. This would help someone 'read' a transcript. Of course, this will never happen, but think about what someone really needs to know to understand a transcript at a deep level; what the student has actually learned and how well? We force the users of marks to guess and make many assumptions. That is part of the problem. What does a mark/grade/pass/fail really mean? Lots of good debates on these topics!

Some kind of assessment is needed for many reasons. You, as an instructor, are being paid to educate and there must be ways of knowing if the students are actually learning the desired outcomes at the desired level; individually and as a group. While there are those who are fixated on marks and it is not healthy, there are those who need marks and relative competitive outcomes for motivation. We do not think that ranking is healthy. We do not think that the recent fixation on high marks is good. It is not. Back in the day when the average was around 68-70, there did not seem to be the same fixation about ranking and precise marks. Rewarding children for bringing home an A, pushing the children to go from B+ to A, having honour rolls at junior grades, probably not a good thing. The children do not get a feeling for what is good enough for a good life/work balance, what reasonable expectations are. In the old days, not everyone was being pushed to be a lawyer, entrepeneur, doctor, engineer, accountant, company executive, etc. Not everyone expected to have their own house and lots of material wealth while still in their 20's. Everything seems askew and it is not clear that all of this is a good thing. Too big for us to fix. But, as long as the youth are driven towards fast returns on their education investment, being 'famous' and having lots of followers on social media by the time they are 23, it will be very competitive and the competition will drive the mark and grade emphasis. Argh!

Grading and any kind of assessment is a two-edged sword. Society is funding the public school systems and there is expectation of ROI on the investment and evidence of value, that the job is being done. Employers of all sorts need to sort through and compare knowledge and expertise, use expectations about the quality of education and learning. Alumni, having been through the process, also place transcripts in context; knowing that if someone does well in a certain course, that is a signal. If the courses and program focus on low cognitive complexity, the scoring is representative of being book smart, the ability to figure out a game and play it. This can be important intel for an employer or recruiter. If the courses and program address the cognitive complexity and process beyond book smart, the transcript can be very valuable to an employer when shifting through hundreds of resumes. They do not have the time or resources to 'test' and interview every candidate to figure out what the candidate knows and does not know, how well they know it. And, in some fields, it is very important to be book smart, in others, it is more important to have the ability to comprehend and think. Who do you want to be your doctor? Design the bridge? Design the software that controls the heart pump? Someone who scraped by, or someone who is very skilled in the task and topic. If you have high expectations for a team, you want to have those who have demonstrate high performance. There is a big caveat of course. That the courses are designed appropriately for the advertised learning outcomes and that the assessments actually assess what should be assessed appropriately as well. Two big assumptions, sometimes valid, sometimes not.

Here are some thoughts about expectations about student performance...

• Try to figure out what the norm is within the department, for the 'level' of course. For example, what is the average for a senior course? For a junior course? You might not agree, but it is not fair to punish the students for something you do not like or agree with. If you do not like it, try to get the department, program to change the standards.
• There should be a reasonable consistency within the department, faculty, and institution about the levels of mastery and what the indicators will be on a transcript. The scoring should be consistent. This might run into the magical 'academic freedom' defenses though.

• The average should be what an average student (whatever that means) can reasonably be expected to achieve in the course using an average effort. The course should assume 10-12 hours per student, on average during the term, all in.
• If a student is close to a threshold for a major decision (term progression, pass/fail, withdraw), some type of analysis is warranted and a mechanical decision is not right. It is your job to assess and figure out what the student has actually learned. Often a test result is inaccurate in this regard. This is one reason we like many multiple assessments that probe different aspects of learning and do not rely on 2-3 major assessments; e.g., one midterm and the big, summative final model. summative final model. That being said, depending on the topic, a larger final is warranted if executed in an. enlightened way.
• The student's holistic situation should be considered.
• Does the mark actually reflect what the student has learned?
• Was there any ambiguity in the marking? Any plausible grey zone?
• Should the student be held back, repeat versus being allowed to proceed into a certain 'fail' situation, not being prepared for the next set of courses? Are you doing the student a favor by passing them? This depends on the overall situation and patterns that can be seen in the student's transcript and term behavior.
• If in doubt, ask the student to prepare a several page deliverable that will probe their comprehension, ability to apply, analyse, etc. Use this as a possible modifier if the decision is a pass/fail. You should sort out a bad hair day result and an overall pattern of poor performance from a single assessment that just went south for a number of reasons, none of which really associated with what the student has learned.

Further reading

• Magnus, J.R., and A.A. Peresetsky (2017). Grade Expectations: Rationality and Overconfidence. Frontiers In Psychology, 8: 2346.