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U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades

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Re: U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades

#171

Post by jedberg »

alephknoll wrote: post #155
jedberg wrote: post #127

This is basically the reason my kids have the last name that they do. My last name starts with E and my wife's with Y. Bucking tradition, she didn't change her name when we got married, so when we had kids we had to decide what name to give them. We opted to hyphenate. Historically, hyphenated last names were [Woman's last name]-[Man's last name]. However, my wife hated that her last name was near the end of the alph…

[flagged]

You seem to be irrationally upset about my light-hearted anecdote. I sincerely hope your weekend gets better.

Re: U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades

#172

Post by lupire »

dheera wrote: post #136
lqet wrote: post #41

I work in academia. When we grade exams, the order of the exams on the stack is the order in which they were collected in the room (people can sit wherever they like). For grading, we are usually 5 people in a single room, and everyone grades a specific exercise for consistency. The exams are getting shuffled heavily , with everyone just grabbing stacks, looking for exams where "their" exercise was not yet graded, an…

When I saw the title I would have thought that the higher concentrations of Asian names starting with V, W, X, Y, Z would have led to higher grades at that end of the alphabet, and thought that effect would have eclipsed anything else.

Indian names start with A,B, N. Chinese names also start with, C, F, L.

Re: U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades

#173

Post by TrianguloY »

I also have the theory that having an app/software starting with A, B, or an "alphabetically first" letter was noticeable in the past. Nowadays things are usually sorted "algorithmically", but it was common for stores to list searches with some alphabetical score, which meant that those apps were usually shown first.

Even now, for example, if you go to Play Store and want to know the apps that you had but are not installed, the default sorting is by name.

Re: U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades

#174

Post by shipmaster »

My last name starts with a letter at the bottom of the alphabet. I notice this all the time. Anecdote from this year: My son is in a high school class that requires constant input from the teacher on long running projects they have. The teacher reviews the projects alphabetically by surname, about 40% of the time, the teacher never gets to the bottom of the class, and asks the students to find her after school if they have issues. But the nature of the projects definitely requires proactive comments from the teacher. I ask my son to go find the teacher regardless and get a pro-active review, but not all the kids do that, and hence the potential for a lower grade.

Re: U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades

#175

Post by bobbiechen »

cvwright wrote: post #101
lqet wrote: post #41

I work in academia. When we grade exams, the order of the exams on the stack is the order in which they were collected in the room (people can sit wherever they like). For grading, we are usually 5 people in a single room, and everyone grades a specific exercise for consistency. The exams are getting shuffled heavily , with everyone just grabbing stacks, looking for exams where "their" exercise was not yet graded, an…

My strategy was to, like you said, grade problem by problem. Then for each problem, first find all those who got full marks. Then group the others into piles based on what mistakes they made. This ensures that everyone who made the same mistake(s) gets the same grade. It also tends to shuffle the order of the exams after every problem. Obviously you don’t need this strategy for simple multiple choice questions, and i…

When I was a TA at CMU, we used Gradescope https://www.gradescope.com/ for this. Every exam would be scanned and divided into problems (based on a predefined template - fixed page space for answers).

Then, each problem was assigned to a TA. Either there's a predefined rubric, or you create it as you go (-1 point for mistake X, half credit for mistake Y, etc.). There's a pretty slick interface where you just read the answer, and use keyboard shortcuts to apply the relevant deductions.

It still has the issue that every time you change the rubric, you'd need to go back and re-do previously-graded instances of that problem. But it was way faster and (equally important) less tiring.

Re: U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades

#176

Post by filipezf »

donatj wrote: post #137
lqet wrote: post #41

I work in academia. When we grade exams, the order of the exams on the stack is the order in which they were collected in the room (people can sit wherever they like). For grading, we are usually 5 people in a single room, and everyone grades a specific exercise for consistency. The exams are getting shuffled heavily , with everyone just grabbing stacks, looking for exams where "their" exercise was not yet graded, an…

In around the year 2000 I had an essay due that day I had forgotten, and about ten minutes of computer lab time before home room in the morning. I wrote an introduction and conclusion; then filled the remainder with copy pasted chunks of the introduction and conclusion. The thought being at least I’d get a laugh. If anyone had read the thing it would have been clear it was nonsense. I received an 80% with no notes or…

There was this numerical calculus class at Uni where the teacher forbid us to use the calculator. So I just programmed the integral on it, got the partial steps, and just wrote random numbers to fill the the substeps. Got full grade :D The other case everybody got to pass the class, but after vacation we found the stack of exams completely untouched under a desk. The teacher had a side business to run...

Re: U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades

#177

Post by mertd »

ryandrake wrote: post #79

Maybe related, or maybe not, but I remember when I was in K-12 school back in the 80s and early 90s, they would always seat us physically in the class front-to-back by last name. So the kids with last names starting with A-D or so would always be in front, and the kids with last names starting with U-Z would be in the back. For every class. I remember this because many of my friends had last names "near" my last name…

Circular shift is the trivial solution. In my high school every row moved up on Mondays and the front row moved to back. Of course you could argue the ones who started at the front on week 1 still has an advantage but it's likely not that significant.

Re: U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades

#178

Post by withinboredom »

dotnet00 wrote: post #124
JadeNB wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I only had to deal with a small class, so backtracking was doable and I graded the papers in whatever shuffled up order they were turned in, otherwise there would have definitely been a bias. Grading papers in submission order just introduces a different bias, though. (For what it's worth, I'm in the same boat and I do the same, because I don't trust my ability to give the papers any true random sorting by hand, so…

Introducing a slight bias factor that is randomized each time results in a lower average bias compared to a bias factor that is the same every time. Plus, as these weren't take-home assignments, I think someone finishing earlier is more likely to be either someone who was already going to score well, or someone who was already going to make the most common errors.

I take tests extremely quickly, I either know the answer or guess it from what I know. I don't think about it. I was usually one of the first people to turn in tests.

I was usually (almost always) the last person to turn in assignments, I like to be one of the last people out of a door or the last person in a line (I don't like crowds).

Grading by order-turned-in would almost always mean my assignment would be one of the first or last one's graded.

If I were to guess that if you did a frequency analysis of people to order, you'd find there were always a certain group who turned it in first, and another group that turned it in last.

Re: U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades

#179

Post by alephknoll »

jedberg wrote: post #171
alephknoll wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

You seem to be irrationally upset about my light-hearted anecdote. I sincerely hope your weekend gets better.

It was just a simple observation. You are reading into things too much. There's no need to be so defensive. Your comment hasn't upset me in the slightest ( rationally or irrationally ) and I sincerely hope you weren't offended by mine.

Re: U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades

#180

Post by RecycledEle »

I can explain why the kids with A names outperform the kids with Z names.

As someone whose first and last names are both very early in the alphabet, I was always called on first or second when I was in elementary school and middle school. I always had to be there early.

My friend whose name was very late in the alphabet learned he did not have to be ready for the first minute or two of class.

He would be standing near the door talking as I was quickly pulling out last night's homework, and I would be marked down for not being ready while he would later be commended for being ready when the teacher called his name.

As a teacher, I see that the kids who stand outside the door talking do not do as well as the kids who are there early.

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