Class Level as a Possible Mediator of the Relationship between Grades and Student Ratings of Teaching

Although the research literature investigating the relationship between grade awarded to students and students' evaluations of teaching performance is voluminous, very few studies have examined the grade-rating relationship according to level of student. The present study examined correlations between mean instructor rating and mean class grade for all course evaluations (N = 625 classes) at Utah State University during an academic quarter. In lower-division (courses 100-299) and upper-division (courses 300-599) undergraduate classes, correlations between grades and ratings of faculty were of an expected direction and magnitude (0.29 and 0.28, respectively); however, the grade-rating correlation for graduate classes (courses 600 +) was - 0.20. It is speculated that graduate students are both better students and more critical evaluators of instruction, but replication and extension with different samples are needed before this tentative explanation can be accepted with confidence.