clinical evaluation and grades help

[JaxJax5423]

I'm fairly new to being a clinical instructor and I work with seasoned professors. I use rubrics to grade all papers and I document daily on the students performance to use for the final evaluations. I have become the mean instructor because I tend to grade way more difficult than all others.

This semester, me and one other instructor taught the same group, same material, same classroom....but split the grading......my students ranged from 81-95 and all her students got 98-100.

what am I doing wrong? I'm spending lots of time evaluating the submittals and I have valid reasons to mark down. One of her students was a no call no show and I had to call her to remind her that if she misses more than 4 hrs, she fails. she got a 98%!!!

Suggestions? Do I need to lighten up? What am I doing wrong?

[elkpark]

I've taught in a few different nursing programs over the years, and there seems to be consensus that grade inflation is a big problem in nursing (as it is across academia in the US). I doubt you're the one who is off base. Have you talked with your supervisors/mentors within the faculty about your concerns? That is where I'd start. Did you have a conversation with the other instructor about her/his approach to grading and how the two of you may have ended up with such a significant discrepancy?

Best wishes. I've been there.

[llg, PhD, RN]

I agree with elkpark. I doubt you are doing anything wrong in your grading. It's the other faculty members. Play the politics here, but play them carefully. Talk to your supervisors and get a sense of how stringent the school administration wants you to be. Then decide whether or not that is a standard of performance that you are willing to live with or not.

I ran into a similar situation when I started teaching as an adjunct several years ago. I went to the Program Director and she supported me. Recently, I have started team-teaching a large class in which I see that some of the other instructors are much more lenient that I am. I have compromised a little -- I grade a little easier than I would if I were on my own, but I maintain standards I can live with.

Good luck.

[JaxJax5423]

thanks for responses! As soon as she saw my grades she said....whoa, I was very generous, too generous. ...and she offered to change her grades for some consistency. I said that it was ok, I am prepared (notes, examples, rubrics) to show the students why I marked them down. As for her group, well they got lucky I guess.