Law Schools

Where The F Are My Grades?

“I teach for free, but I charge a hell of a lot for grading.” – attrib. every professor on the planet. 

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Grading is not a fun process.  It isn’t joyful.  It isn’t easy.  And, it isn’t pretty.  Professors have the challenge of comparing x number of exams, and seeing where they fit, most likely on a forced curve of some sort. Imagine reading the same chapter of a book 100 times, with each chapter being for the most part only slightly different than the others.

Before you jump in and suggest I’m seeking pity, I’m not. I have the BEST job in the world, thank you. I’m just suggesting that grading isn’t easy. Usually, the only sympathy I get from students about grading is when I make my teaching assistant read midterms. 

So, it is easy to think that professors are avoiding grading like the plague. Or, as Joe Patrice suggested, getting drunk at law professor conferences like AALS, and then boasting about not having grades finished.

In our defense, let me say that most law professors have grades done already.  We don’t want to sit on them. We hate it if they linger past the holidays. We hate going into the new semester with them staring us down. Sometimes it is necessary, but most of the time it is not. So, let’s go through a list of reasons why your professor’s grades might be late.

  1. Your professor is a grade “A” procrastinator. Your professor is over-committed, says yes to everything, and then is surprised at the end of the semester when they discover they are behind in grading. It is difficult to grade when an editor is yelling at you for an article due a month ago.
  2. Your professor is lazy. I don’t feel like grading. I hate it. What’s on TV right now? Yes, the students deserve their grades in a timely fashion, but I don’t feel like it. This is the most common perception I hear of law professors who don’t turn in their grades in a timely fashion. It is also the rarest form of reason why grades are late.
  3. Your professor has a ton of students. If you were in a larger class, then it is likely it is going to take your professor longer to grade. I’ve often thought about the joys of having small classes. But sometimes that’s not an option. 
  4. Something bad has happened. The ONE time I asked for a grade extension was when my mother was in the hospital. There was no way I could focus while my mom was in the ER. And, it would not have been fair to my students to try to grade when I’m worried. I also know of a professor who died while grading. A scary thought for many of us. Oh, I did get my grade extension. My evil dean gave me two days.
  5. Someone who is not the professor screwed up. Oftentimes exams can be missing, exam numbers entered incorrectly, and other details that aren’t even the fault of the professor. If your professor is grading under a forced curve, the professor needs all of the exams graded before entering grades. You’d be surprised how often this happens.
  6. Make-up exams. Sometimes something bad happens to your colleagues, and we wait to give grades until after that one make-up is complete. Usually this isn’t a long delay, however. 
  7. Cheating. If your colleagues were reported for cheating, that may delay grades for everyone.
  8. Administrative hurdles. It might be the case that your grades are delayed because of administrative requirements. That can be part of the law school’s structure, or, if your law school is part of a larger university, some archaic requirements from across campus. Oftentimes, law schools are exempted from larger university grade deadlines, but that doesn’t make the process any easier.
  9. Scan-Trons. Was your test multiple choice? You’d be surprised how often those create a bottleneck. 

So, I suppose the question becomes: So, what if it is the case your professor is in either category 1 or worse, category 2. Do the law schools care?  The answer is yes.

Some schools fine professors who turn in grades late. Sometimes, those fines are substantial. The more conscientious of graders might be assigned to the must-take classes, provided they are good teachers as well. In other words, it isn’t as if the law school lacks some power here. 

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My students don’t shirk in asking me if my grades are in. I usually tell the class when I expect to have grades submitted. When I miss that self-imposed deadline, I can expect messages from students, forcing me to explain to the whole class why I’m late (to the extent FERPA allows). That requires some trust, as students can be skittish about calling out a professor about grades before they get theirs. Even with anonymous grading, sometimes the fear that it really isn’t anonymous causes students to give pause to the idea of contacting their professor. The mere fact I send an email though shows the students I’m working at it, and I know it is important. So, if you’re sitting on grades for months like a submarine running silent, you aren’t building that trust.

So, back to the law professors partying at AALS who don’t have grading finished. In my random sample at receptions, it appears to be a small percentage. And my response to those that brag of such things is to shun them: “I’ll stop talking to you right now and let you get to it.” However, that isn’t the usual response I get. The usual response I get from someone who isn’t finished grading is guilt, with some explanation required as to what circumstances led to this deplorable state of affairs.

Which leads me to another point. There are a lot of professors. And sometimes, it isn’t the serial offender, but rather the fact that we hear about delays caused by issues 3-9 that get blamed on some professors. And we never hear stories about the thousands of professors who get their grades in on time without screwing up.

I think that professors and administrators could alleviate the pain and suffering that delayed grades might cause by disclosing when the grades can be expected and, if they are delayed, some general reason why. Communication is key, particularly when someone is shelling out gobs of money to attend law school.

In case you think I’m being defensive, I get my grading done in two weeks. Always. 

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LawProfBlawg is an anonymous professor at a top 100 law school. You can see more of his musings here.  He is way funnier on social media, he claims.  Please follow him on Twitter (@lawprofblawg) or Facebook. Email him at lawprofblawg@gmail.com.

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