Grading in college art / design courses

Parent Cafe
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<p>This is cross-posted in the art careers forum. However, I wanted to hear from non-design majors as well)</p>

<p>How do you get beyond the subjective nature of grading in art/design studios? I kept hearing from faculty & tour guides at design schools that "grades aren't important". In fact, I know in one of my d's classes, they did not periodically give grades along the way -- although plenty of "critiques". Everyone's work is critiqued, so students have no clue how they are doing, or if they are not doing well, how to improve. They are simply surprised at the end.</p>

<p>My d. was bemoaning the grades received on a recent graphics project. In one instance, three students in the class of about 35 turned in VERY similar designs, with equal craft. One received a 93. One received a 78. One received a 62! (My d. was in the middle). Since the projects were so similar in both approach and quality, it could not be argued that one student understood the problem, and another did not. She is mature enough to know quality. She readily acknowledges student work that is good. She is also fair when criticizing her own work, and admits when something is not very good. She was just totally confused by the grading, and I had no answers other than it is a "crap shoot", and very subjective in design curriculums. </p>

<p>I agree that in design careers, no one grades your work (except critics). You either please the client or not. And often you will please one and not the other. Your work is marketable, or not. One can argue that's the nature of the business, so get used to it. I typically don't accept the status quo, so instead I'm looking for better approaches. If grades are not important, why must they be given at all? Why haven't such classes moved to a pass/fail system? How can you improve, if you don't really know how, and are not given positive steps to do so? Are you simply doomed to failure, if someone doesn't like your work? Shouldn't the nature of design courses be to help you to improve? </p>

<p>What advice would you give design students?</p>

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<p>There is an important difference between grading being random (e.g. professor is inconsistent, has no criteria, throws projects down stairs to assign grades), and a student perceiving it that way because she or he doesn't understand the criteria for particular grades or can not distinguish between high and low on a given criteria. </p>

<p>I would encourage my kids in this situation (and they have been) to talk to the professor. Not to argue or grade grub, but to glean insight into his or her criteria and rationale. Frame it around the key issues you raise, which is not the grade, but just feeling in the dark, not knowing how to grow and improve since the grade by itself is not enough feedback.</p>