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[dweeb]

I saw this on a blog. In developmental classes with designated tutors and taught by credentialed faculty, should tutors  grade the high stakes finals that determine whether or not a student passes?

[anon99]

Are these tutors also instructors and how much time do they spend interacting with students in the class?  I am used to tutors who are grad students for a class.

[dweeb]

Apparently, no, the tutors are not instructors. The tutors are undergraduate and graduate students who help students with their papers and may help grade papers during the semester if faculty want to give them some experience in grading papers.

The classes are pass/fail, and students must rely on the high stakes final to discover whether or not they pass. So, in effect, tutors are determining whether or not students pass.

This just seems wrong to me on several levels, though I haven't time to address it at the moment, and I really wanted to know others' opinions before spouting off.

[cj405]

I saw this on a blog. In developmental classes with designated tutors and taught by credentialed faculty, should tutors  grade the high stakes finals that determine whether or not a student passes?

Can you link to the blog?  I don't think I understand the potential conflict here.  Is there some reason to suspect the tutors would be less than impartial when grading the final? 

Edited:  I'd still like to see the blog, but I for some reason was inserting math into the first post.  In other words, I thought the final would be an exam with clear right and wrong answers not writing assignments. 

I think as long as they were working with clear rubrics, the grad students should be able to help with the grading.  Perhaps, switching the papers around so no one was grading one of their tutees would ensure fairness in the grading.

[scampster]

The classes are pass/fail, and students must rely on the high stakes final to discover whether or not they pass. So, in effect, tutors are determining whether or not students pass.

No, the students are determining whether or not they themselves pass.

I don't see how this is any different from TAs and graders in any class grading a final (or any assignment). A good instructor will have gone over the grading criteria with their TAs so that they are at least consistent for such a high stakes grade.

[seniorscholar]

I don't see how this is any different from TAs and graders in any class grading a final (or any assignment). A good instructor will have gone over the grading criteria with their TAs so that they are at least consistent for such a high stakes grade.

This. That's what TAs are for, isn't it? Of course I look over a few papers from each TA for the first couple of assignments, but after that they're on their own. And I handle grade complaints for them, too, as long as the student brings the paper along or it's a paper I can get from the department office.

[dweeb]

The final consist of several essays written over the semester for a mandatory writing course, not math.

The tutors are general population students at a public four year institution (highest in-house degree is MS or MA).

The problem posed is that a student's passing or not passing is being decided, lock, stock and barrel, by non-credentialed undergraduate and graduate students. This goes beyond TAs assisting to tutors determining final grades.

Note: this is not about courses with hundreds of students where assistance is needed to handle the grading load. These classes are capped at 28 students.

[hegemony]

I think we'd really like to read the blog and hear a more formal description of the procedure (is there an online syllabus?) before pronouncing.

[zharkov]

OP, as described, the idea seem hokey, but then again, blogs are often hokey and unreliable.  I would not put much weight on the reliability of the account unless and until I actually read the blog, if in fact, that blog actually exists. (Are you sure it was not just a dream you had?) 

For what it's worth, no student at my university -- including TAs -- may be an instructor of record, thus no student could actually submit a final grade.

[seniorscholar]

For what it's worth, no student at my university -- including TAs -- may be an instructor of record, thus no student could actually submit a final grade.

Which is why I sign the grade report forms before handing them over to the TA . . .

[michigander]

I am a tutor, and I don't think that I should be grading the students I work with.  I think it would adversely affect the relationship that I try to cultivate.  My department welcomes comments and recommendations from tutors directly to instructors, but the instructor sees the big picture and should be assigning the grades.

[hegemony]

So the tutors in this case are the other students in the class, or outside students, or -- ?  How do these people get to be tutors?  And who records the grades?  While we're in the dark about how it works, I don't think we can share the sense of outrage.

[wet_blanket]

Where is the university in question?  In one of my undergrad institutions abroad, the official job title "tutor" was used where "TA" would be used in the US.