Phys.org, Researchers Find Lower Grades Given to Students With Surnames That Come Later in Alphabetical Order:
Knowing your ABCs is essential to academic success, but having a last name starting with A, B or C might also help make the grade.
An analysis by University of Michigan researchers of more than 30 million grading records from U-M finds students with alphabetically lower-ranked names receive lower grades [30 Million Canvas Grading Records Reveal Widespread Sequential Bias and System-Induced Surname Initial Disparity]. This is due to sequential grading biases and the default order of students’ submissions in Canvas—the most widely used online learning management system—which is based on the alphabetical rank of their surnames.
What’s more, they find, those alphabetically disadvantaged students receive comments that are notably more negative and less polite, and exhibit lower grading quality measured by post-grade complaints from students. …
Their research uncovered a clear pattern of a decline in grading quality as graders evaluate more assignments. According to Wang, students whose surnames start with A, B, C, D or E received a 0.3-point higher grade out of 100 possible points than compared to when they were graded randomly. Likewise, students with later-in-the-alphabet surnames received a 0.3-point lower grade—creating a 0.6-point gap.
Wang notes for a small group of graders (about 5%) that grade from Z to A, the grade gap flips as expected: A-E students are worse off, while W-Z students receive higher grades relative to what they would receive when graded randomly. Such observations confirm their hypothesis that it’s the order of grading that leads to the initial gap in grades.
