Detail Page

Pondering zeros: Uncovering hidden inequities within a decade of grades
written by Cassandra A. Paul, David J. Webb, Mary K. Chessey, and James Lucas
When assessing student work, graders will often find that some students will leave one or more problems blank on assessments. Since there is no work shown, the grader has no means to evaluate the student's understanding of a particular problem, and thus awards zero points. This practice punishes the student behavior of leaving a problem blank, but this zero is not necessarily an accurate assessment of student understanding of a particular topic. While some might argue that this grading practice is "fair" in that students know that they can't receive points for answers they don't submit, we share evidence that different student groups engage in blank-leaving behavior at different rates and are therefore unequally impacted. We analyze 10 years of UC Davis introductory physics course databases to show that different groups of students skip problems and entire exams at different rates. We also share some implications for grading practices.
Physics Education Research Conference 2018
Part of the PER Conference series
Washington, DC: August 1-2, 2018
Subjects Levels Resource Types
Education Foundations
- Assessment
= Instruments
= Longitudinal
= Methods
= Summative Assessment
- Societal Issues
- Student Characteristics
- Lower Undergraduate
- Reference Material
= Research study
Intended Users Formats Ratings
- Educators
- Researchers
- application/pdf
  • Currently 0.0/5

Want to rate this material?
Login here!


Mirror:
https://doi.org/10.1119/perc.2018…
Access Rights:
Free access
License:
This material is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the published article's author(s), title, proceedings citation, and DOI.
Rights Holder:
American Association of Physics Teachers
DOI:
10.1119/perc.2018.pr.Paul
Keyword:
PERC 2018
Record Creator:
Metadata instance created December 31, 2018 by Lyle Barbato
Record Updated:
December 31, 2018 by Lyle Barbato
Last Update
when Cataloged:
December 31, 2018
Other Collections:

ComPADRE is beta testing Citation Styles!

Record Link
AIP Format
C. Paul, D. Webb, M. Chessey, and J. Lucas, , presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2018, Washington, DC, 2018, WWW Document, (https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14837&DocID=4984).
AJP/PRST-PER
C. Paul, D. Webb, M. Chessey, and J. Lucas, Pondering zeros: Uncovering hidden inequities within a decade of grades, presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2018, Washington, DC, 2018, <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14837&DocID=4984>.
APA Format
Paul, C., Webb, D., Chessey, M., & Lucas, J. (2018, August 1-2). Pondering zeros: Uncovering hidden inequities within a decade of grades. Paper presented at Physics Education Research Conference 2018, Washington, DC. Retrieved April 27, 2024, from https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14837&DocID=4984
Chicago Format
Paul, C, D. Webb, M. Chessey, and J. Lucas. "Pondering zeros: Uncovering hidden inequities within a decade of grades." Paper presented at the Physics Education Research Conference 2018, Washington, DC, August 1-2, 2018. https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14837&DocID=4984 (accessed 27 April 2024).
MLA Format
Paul, Cassandra, David Webb, Mary K. Chessey, and James Lucas. "Pondering zeros: Uncovering hidden inequities within a decade of grades." Physics Education Research Conference 2018. Washington, DC: 2018. of PER Conference. 27 Apr. 2024 <https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14837&DocID=4984>.
BibTeX Export Format
@inproceedings{ Author = "Cassandra Paul and David Webb and Mary K. Chessey and James Lucas", Title = {Pondering zeros: Uncovering hidden inequities within a decade of grades}, BookTitle = {Physics Education Research Conference 2018}, Address = {Washington, DC}, Series = {PER Conference}, Month = {August 1-2}, Year = {2018} }
Refer Export Format

%A Cassandra Paul %A David Webb %A Mary K. Chessey %A James Lucas %T Pondering zeros: Uncovering hidden inequities within a decade of grades %S PER Conference %D August 1-2 2018 %C Washington, DC %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14837&DocID=4984 %O Physics Education Research Conference 2018 %O August 1-2 %O application/pdf

EndNote Export Format

%0 Conference Proceedings %A Paul, Cassandra %A Webb, David %A Chessey, Mary K. %A Lucas, James %D August 1-2 2018 %T Pondering zeros: Uncovering hidden inequities within a decade of grades %B Physics Education Research Conference 2018 %C Washington, DC %S PER Conference %8 August 1-2 %U https://www.compadre.org/Repository/document/ServeFile.cfm?ID=14837&DocID=4984


Disclaimer: ComPADRE offers citation styles as a guide only. We cannot offer interpretations about citations as this is an automated procedure. Please refer to the style manuals in the Citation Source Information area for clarifications.

Citation Source Information

The AIP Style presented is based on information from the AIP Style Manual.

The APA Style presented is based on information from APA Style.org: Electronic References.

The Chicago Style presented is based on information from Examples of Chicago-Style Documentation.

The MLA Style presented is based on information from the MLA FAQ.

Pondering zeros: Uncovering hidden inequities within a decade of grades:


Know of another related resource? Login to relate this resource to it.
Save to my folders

Contribute

Related Materials

Similar Materials