Considering the Effects of Assignment Choices on Equity Gaps

Harriet T. Hobbs, Karen E. Singer-Freeman, & Christine Robinson   |    Volume 16 Issue 1  |   

This paper examines students’ patterns of success in classes with high DFW rates at a research intensive university. We investigated whether certain assignment types were associated with inequitable grade distributions for underrepresented minority (URM) and transfer students and whether assignment grade patterns were similar to final grade patterns. Across eight classes, 745 students’ grades were analyzed from 27 assignments including tests, papers, projects, homework, and oral reports. In every class, URM students received lower final grades than non-URM students, and transfer students received lower final grades than non-transfer students. In five classes, different patterns of equity emerged across different assignment types and different groups of students. These findings support the importance of going beyond the disaggregation of final grades by disaggregating grades on individual assignments, and the need to develop institutional practices that examine the presence of equity gaps in the classroom.

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