A recent survey of 175 economics professors who teach basic principles of economics courses revealed a widely diverse set of grading practices for the course. These instructors taught at 118 different institutions, including doctoral degree-granting universities, two-year colleges, and everything in between. The findings are specific to the course and the field of economics. However, the questions raised by the analysis are relevant to grading across the board. The different grading policies and practices reported here are not uncommon, and one would suspect that findings like these are typical of any number of courses routinely offered by our institutions.
