How to speed grading #4 - instant replay

I've talked extensively in the previous three posts about using a referee's mindset while grading.  Make the best call you can, get the ball in play, and move the game along.  Whether a tight judgement call goes one way or the other isn't something a referee can dwell on.

But, yes, sometimes referees do make egregious errors.  And that's why instant replay, or the Video Assistant Referee, exists.  Please understand, though, that in virtually all sports, instant replay has become something other than what was intended.  

In the 1985 World Series, Don Denkinger called a runner safe at first, when the runner should have been out by a country mile.  A replay review could have, within moments, determined that Denkinger's call was crazy-wrong - and Denkinger himself would have welcomed a quick word in his ear correcting his career-defining mishap.  That would have been the correct use of instant replay.

In virtually every college or professional football game nowadays, officials make a call that causes the commentator to say "I don't know about that one."  Then the game stops, the commentator yaps on in ignorance of the rules, frame-by-frame video of the event plays for five minutes or more... the referee announces the final decision, and the crowd, commentator, coaches, and players still complain vehemently.  That's the use of replay that has caused me to stop watching so much American football.

In your physics classroom, it's worth making a version of "instant replay," a route of appeal, available to students to right egregious grading errors.  The following are errors in need of correction:

• You meant to write a score of 11, but you wrote 1 instead.
• You didn't notice that the student had referred you to the rest of their response on the next page.
• The copy machine misprinted a student's test page, changing the substance of a test question.

Egregious errors are rare.  As you're well aware, though, students will grasp at straws, hoping against hope that they can convince you that you made several egregious errors on every one of their tests - enough to make their grade go up a notch, anyway.  To allow students to make tendentious arguments about judgement calls, especially in front of their classmates, destroys culture and drains your spirit.  You didn't sign up to be a prosecutor or a debate coach.

Long Islander Matt Sckalor delivers the Word of God when it comes to physics teaching, on this and every issue.  Matt's response to a student who thinks they see a clear and obvious grading error could be mimicked by every teacher:

"I can't talk about this now.  Please put your test in this folder here.  Tonight,  I'll re-grade the entire test for you."

Problem solved!  You've checkmated the student's attempt to use their debate skills to argue a better grade, because you're not listening.  You've checkmated those whose primary interest was performative complaining about the grading in front of their sympathetic friends.  

And you've checkmated those who were grasping at straws, hoping against hope that they might find one more point.  Watch these folks' body language.  As soon as you emphasize that you will regrade the entire test, their faces will drop.  They'll do some mental recalculation.  They'll recognize the implication - it's just as likely you'll find a place where you awarded one too many rather than one too few points.  They'll sigh, mutter some passive-aggressive comments, and walk away.  

Point is, by taking away the public or even private discussion, you're using your and your class's time more appropriately, doing test corrections and lab activities rather than grade discussion.  Other students who might have been preparing with their own defense attorneys will see the lack of success from the first student, and so give up the argument.

What if the student puts the test in the envelope?  Well, then regrade the whole test.  If the student is questioning one close judgement call, then look at every close judgement call.  I don't recommend deciding in retrospect that maybe the student deserved the one point they wanted to argue about.  I recommend leaving everything the way it was originally graded unless you totally screwed up.  It will help your piece of mind if you truly look carefully at the whole exam, including at the places where, in retrospect, the student hadn't said something explicitly enough but you awarded credit anyway.  Look everywhere, not just at the cherry-picked example that the student felt wronged about.  

And if you did in fact make the rare substantial error that was clear and obvious, just correct it.

Put the test in the student's box the next day.  Try to avoid handing it personally to a student before or during class - make it so they look at the test later, out of your presence, and preferably out of their friends' presence.  This is important whether or not you made any changes to their grade!  Teenagers live in the moment.  Chances are, they've forgotten about the minor issue about which they were so passionate about yesterday.  No need to remind them.  Let the argument die, put the ball in play, and move on.