Policy Seminar: Does Relative Grading Help Male Students? Evidence from a Field Experiment in the Classroom

Time: 13.00-14.00 hours
Location: CPB-office, Van Stolkweg 14, The Hague

Presentation: Sander Onderstal (UvA)

Discussant: Karen van der Wiel (CPB)

Language: English

Registration: Please register by sending an email to seminars@cpb.nl.

Abstract subject:
In a large-scale field experiment at a university we provide a direct empirical comparison of the two most commonly used grading practices: the absolute (i.e. criterion-referenced) and the relative (norm-referenced) grading schemes. Our aim is to test whether relative grading, by creating a rank-order tournament in the classroom, provides stronger incentives for male students than absolute grading. Analyzing the full sample of participating students we obtain only weak support for our hypothesis. However, when we focus on subsamples of students motivated by grade incentives (according to different proxies capturing motivation), we find that men score significantly higher on the test when graded on the curve. Female students do not respond to relative grading, thus their relative performance decreases compared to men. Since women slightly outperform men under absolute grading, grading on a curve actually narrows the gender gap in performance. We further find that the two grading schemes do not differ considerably in the study effort and exam preparation they induce, so we attribute the increase in test scores of responsive male students to higher effort provision during the exam. Our results are relevant for the design of policies addressing the gender gap in educational outcomes.

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