Taxonomy of grading practices in the University of Puerto Rico at Bayamón, 1995-96 to 2015-16

Faculty members and their corresponding academic fields at the University of Puerto Rico at Bayamón are classified with regard to grading practices over time. Based on the effects on the intercept of the equations that predict the GPA and the proportion of student withdrawals observed in each of the 39,337 courses offered during 41 consecutive terms, faculty members and academic fields are scaled from the easiest to the most difficult. Evidence points to the conclusion that the courses of the most difficult academic fields are offered primarily by the hardest grading faculty members and attended by the most academically able students, while the courses of the easiest academic fields are offered primarily by the easiest grading faculty members and attended by less academically able students. The conclusion of such self-sorting processes is reinforced by evidence from maximum likelihood models demonstrating that the probability that a randomly selected faculty member behaves like a high-grader or a low-grader is highly and significantly related to the cluster of academic fields to which the faculty member belongs. Such a probability is also strongly and significantly influenced by the heterogeneity of student academic ability distribution. Hence, faculty members are very responsive to signals sent by their students’ characteristics. This empirical result deserves further detailed analysis given that it implies a scenario in which faculty members and students engage in a shopping-around process in which both parties free-ride from each other, altering institutional norms and academic standards.

The Experience of Transitioning Two Adolescents With Asperger Syndrome in Academically Focused High Schools

Adolescents with Asperger syndrome (AS) are increasingly being placed in academically focused high schools. These students, although academically able, may not be coping with the wider classroom and social demands of transition to, and within, the high school environment. Schools are keen to enrol these students. However, there appears to be a gap between the rhetoric and the reality relating to the varying perceptions of key stakeholders. In this paper we present the results of a study of the perceptions of key stakeholders in the transition of two students with AS into two academically focused high schools. Eight participants were involved in semistructured, one-on-one interviews. Key stakeholders included executive teachers, classroom teachers, students and their caregivers. The results indicated that there were some differences in the teacher and caregiver perspectives across physical, academic and social areas of transition.