Academic Discipline and Beliefs About the Purpose of Grades: A Cross-Sectional Study of Business School Faculty

This study presents results of a web-based survey about the grading beliefs of a sample of U.S. business school faculty. Two dimensions of beliefs are examined: the gatekeeper belief and the frame-of-reference (norm versus criterion). Using a national, cross-sectional sample of business school faculty, we find significant differences among business disciplines which suggest that our various areas provide different, but complementary, evaluations of student performance. For instance, the more factual business disciplines exhibit stronger gatekeeper beliefs while the more qualitative business disciplines exhibit weaker gatekeeper beliefs. Similar differences exist for the frame-of-reference that faculty use in assigning grades. These differences have implications for addressing grade inflation and for student assessment by employers and for expanding course content within disciplines