Treffer: Computer-Based Normalization of Students' Examination Scores and Grades for Educational Equity.

This paper studies computer-based normalization of students' examination scores and grades in a percentage-based grading system. The reasons as to why the final results of multiple exams, with multiple shifts, varying difficulty and different evaluations, need to be adjusted to a notionally common scale for all candidates in a class, is highlighted. An adjusting application that accurately captures students' true performance across shifts for the same course, and thus distributes the scores more evenly over a range was written in Java programming language. The application was tested with sample scores for a class of university students enrolled in Introduction to Computer Science course, in which laboratory sessions, lectures and exams were administered by teaching assistants and instructors with varying knowledge, experience and difficulty. The study examines and resolves the problem of unintentional disparity and inconsistency in grading, and unreasonable ranking which tend to place the wrong students on academic probation. The results can be seen and utilized the same way across all the records in the database. This should help guidance counselors, educators, instructors and teaching assistants to build an equitable and dynamic culture of learning that gives all students a sense of purpose, regardless of their diverse backgrounds, behavior, attitude or participation in class sessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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