“Why hasn’t my teacher graded yet?!” As the semester speeds toward the finish line, students check Aeries with alarmingly increased frequency. Complaints of slow grading arise, with many students expressing frustration with teachers who wait until the very last minute to solidify those letter grades.
This is not an uncommon experience — most students have at least one teacher whose grading updates drag behind others. Slow grading has significant negative impacts. Grading provides crucial feedback to help students know what to improve on and watch out for next time. Jocelyn Wang, a junior, explains, “without regular, timely feedback, it’s hard to improve. I lose motivation, and it’s annoying when grades suddenly drop at the end of the semester.”
So why do teachers “grade so slow”? A huge reason is the sheer amount of time it takes. Essays unanimously are the heaviest workload; teachers across departments report one class set takes anywhere from four to six-and-a-half hours. Add in the multiple periods most teachers have, and that grading time skyrockets. Mr. Jackson, who teaches AP Literature, mentions, “English teachers…work a lot longer hours outside of contractual time that they don’t get compensated for, in order to give feedback.” In other words, teachers who teach writing heavy classes generally aren’t being paid for all the extra hours they spend grading on their own time. While yes, teachers do choose their own subjects, it can still be discouraging to have more grading work than their peers and feel undercompensated.
However, it’s not only essays that require an extended amount of time. Grading tests with objectively correct answers isn’t always a five minute ordeal either. For example, Mr. Hedlund, the math department head and AP Calculus teacher reports, “it’s at least an hour per [calculus] class,” and that’s with the caveat “I don’t spend as much time grading as a lot of people do because I’ve been doing it long enough.” Teachers have to painstakingly scour through the entire mathematical process to find where each mistake occurred. It isn’t always a simple check or circle for right and wrong answers.
All those hours grading opens up the potential for grading fatigue. Often, it involves 30+ hours of work correcting the same ten simple mistakes, or slogging through repetitive paragraphs. That is added on top of lesson planning, teaching and tending to normal life responsibilities. Mr. Jackson says it casts a heavy shadow over all other tasks: “You’re carrying it right in your mind…back and forth from school.”
Another reason for grading delay is teachers’ lives outside of school — something easy for students to look over. Some teachers have family responsibilities, especially those with young children. Mr. Hedlund said, “when I had little kids at home, let me tell you: trying to get something done was really hard.” Mr. Soykin who teaches AP European history and World History shared the same sentiment: “When I first started teaching, I was able to carve out multiple hours at the end of the school day to dedicate to grading…Now that I’m married with two small children at home, that’s simply not possible anymore.” No matter how well teachers budget their time, their children’s unpredictable needs and chaotic schedules can always interfere.
Other teachers have their own extracurricular activities. Coaching sports, overseeing school programs like theater or clubs, and volunteering are just some of the commitments that can sometimes derail grading plans.
While there’s a whole host of reasons why grading “takes forever,” it might be comforting to know teachers work strategically to optimize the process. Mr. Soykin, for example, has his TAs help grade quizzes and tests with objective answer keys. He also uses the Zipgrade app for multiple choice tests. It functions exactly like Scantron, except it’s instantaneous and directly on his phone where “the data from each test is readily available…at all times for [him] to analyze.”
On the writing side, Ms. Robson the English 9 Honors and Theater teacher shares her tips: “Rubrics are very helpful with providing feedback quickly. In addition, making a list of common errors and reviewing these with the class as a whole saves time with grading.”
With all that, the next time you’re toggling between your classwork and Aeries, trying to push down your exasperation at the lack of grading updates, it’s worth pausing to consider other responsibilities teachers might have – and the many reasons they might “grade so slow.”
