A study of some of the determinants of teacher marks

Statement of the problem. Most of the writings about marks in recent years have been concerned with the recording or reporting of pupil progress. Little attention has been given to how teachers decide upon marks or what the basic determinants of marks are. One of the purposes of this study was to find if the information a teacher has as to the student's age, grade, sex, ability, past achievement, or conduct, affects the grades assigned to papers. These are the factors mentioned most often in the literature as factors teachers consider in assigning marks. It was also the intent of this study to determine if the nature of the assignment of a paper, i.e., whether a paper is designated a test paper or a dally paper affects the mark assigned by the teacher. Another objective was to determine if the above- mentioned information caused a reduction of variability in the scoring of papers, A further purpose was to determine whether the variability in scoring was greater in scoring English papers or in the scoring of arithmetic papers. To determine if teachers used a fixed point system or floating point system of grading was also a goal of the study. [...]