Arizona Bill Would Let College Students Appeal Grades If They Allege Political Bias

[GMDino]

https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaeltnietzel/2024/03/07/arizona-bill-would-let-college-students-appeal-grades-if-they-perceive-political-bias/?sh=76c9db8110b6

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Quote:Michael T. Nietzel
Senior Contributor

I am a former university president who writes about higher education.
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Mar 7, 2024,06:00am EST

Under a bill being considered by Arizona lawmakers, students at public universities could appeal ... [+]

The Arizona State Legislature is considering a bill that would set up an outside process for college students to appeal their grades if they believe they were affected by political bias against them on the part of an instructor.


State Senator Anthony Kern (R-Glendale) has introduced Senate Bill 1477 that would establish a “Grade Challenge Department” within the Arizona Board of Regents, the governance board that oversees the University of Arizona, Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University.

Under the bill, the Grade Challenge Department, which would have a location at each public university and be staffed by “volunteers selected by the Arizona Board of Regents,” would hear challenges by students to course grades they allege were affected by political bias.

If the Grade Challenge Department determines that a student’s grade was affected by political bias, the department could require the faculty member to regrade the students work “consistent with the department’s guidance.”

In addition, if the student disagrees with the Grade Challenge Department’s decision, the student may appeal the decision to the Arizona Board of Regents, and the board would then be able to “order any faculty member of a public university to regrade a student’s assignment or reevaluate a student’s overall class grade consistent with the Board’s guidance.”

Not surprisingly, university leaders and faculty are pushing back against the proposed legislation. As just the latest example of conservative legislators attempting to limit faculty authority, the bill’s problems are numerous and significant.

First, each of the universities already have extensive grade appeals processes in place, as do almost every college and university in the county. Here are those polices for Arizona State University, the University of Arizona and Northern Arizona University. They are meant to afford students an opportunity to show they were graded unfairly or incorrectly, and there is little evidence they have not been adequate for that purpose.

Second, who exactly would the Grade Change Department volunteers be? How would they be selected? What qualifications, if any, would they need to have to judge the presence or influence of political bias, let alone the quality of a student’s work in question? Is it not likely that strongly held viewpoints would motivate political partisans to step forward for such duty? That’s exactly the type of person who should not be weighing the merits of alleged political bias.

Third, it’s not clear who would pay for the new personnel the Board of Regents would need to hire to staff the department. The bill includes no new appropriations for an operating budget. It’s an unfunded mandate.


And finally, imagine the mischief such a bill, were it to become law, could introduce into college courses.

• Would a student in a World History course be entitled to challenge her grade if she claimed her essays were scored more harshly by an instructor who had voiced political differences with her in class?
• Would a student have a case for appeal if he argued that a professor downgraded a Sociology term paper because of a previous in-class political argument between them?
• Could the head of the local College Republicans claim her Social Work grade was lowered by a professor who’s a known champion of liberal causes?
• Could an outspoken communist student argue that a conservative professor unfairly reduced his Economics grade and therefore, the Grade Challenge Department should mandate a regrading?
  

The possible claims are nearly endless, the burden of proof is unclear, and the standards to be applied are unspecified. But one thing is certain – SB 1477 would introduce outside influences into academic evaluations, removing them from the sole purview of faulty and the institutional checks and balances already in place to protect against grading abuses.



Senator Kern, the bill’s sponsor, has been an outspoken critic of public universities in the past. Earlier this legislative session, according to the Arizona Mirror, he said he was “not a university guy” and called the state’s universities “anti-American indoctrination camps” because they offered courses and events designed for students of color and members of the LGBTQ community.


In press accounts, Kern has described his grading bill as “a due process issue,'' claiming that students “do not feel they can debate issues according to their politics or according to what they believe because they're afraid their grades are going to be lowered. This is going to help them.''


Kern, who’s being investigated for serving as one of Arizona’s fake electors in an attempt to undermine the 2020 presidential election, also has introduced Senate Concurrent Resolution 1014, which provides that “the Legislature, and no other official, shall appoint presidential electors.”


In other words, Arizona’s popular vote for president would not select its presidential electors, the state legislature would decide instead — acting sort of like a Grading Challenge Department, but this time for determining elections rather than changing Cs or Ds.

SB 1477 has already passed the Arizona Senate by a vote of 16-12, with two senators not voting. It’s now moved to the Arizona House of Representatives where it passed out of the House Education Committee by a slim 4-3 margin and is waiting for a full House vote.

[SunsetBengal]

Anecdotal, but who cares, I'm going to tell it anyway. I took a lit class taught by an obviously liberal female professor my Sophomore year. We were asked to write reviews of assigned readings and interpret the message we took from the piece. I started the class earnestly, putting serious thought and effort into my reviews and expressing my true feelings on what I felt from the author's message. I ended up with B- most times. A friend of mine suggested "faking" a review, meaning write it how she would want to you feel from the assignment. Trust me, that ended up being tougher to do than just letting my own thoughts roll, but I gave it a shot. Ended up with an A in that class.

So, the moral of my anecdote is to let you know that there is indeed such a thing as political bias when it comes to grading in higher education.

[GMDino]

(03-15-2024, 07:47 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Anecdotal, but who cares, I'm going to tell it anyway.  I took a lit class taught by an obviously liberal female professor my Sophomore year.  We were asked to write reviews of assigned readings and interpret the message we took from the piece.  I started the class earnestly, putting serious thought and effort into my reviews and expressing my true feelings on what I felt from the author's message.  I ended up with B- most times.  A friend of mine suggested "faking" a review, meaning write it how she would want to you feel from the assignment.  Trust me, that ended up being tougher to do than just letting my own thoughts roll, but I gave it a shot.  Ended up with an A in that class.

So, the moral of my anecdote is to let you know that there is indeed such a thing as political bias when it comes to grading in higher education.

I had a similar experience in college in a public speaking class.  Aced the tests, got ovations for my speech...got a B in the class.  Found out the teacher didn't like men doing better that the women...lol.

I was going to ask her why the next year but she left for another school.

I still don't think allowing to argue that your grade over political views will lead to anything but trouble.

[SunsetBengal]

(03-15-2024, 08:10 PM)GMDino Wrote: I had a similar experience in college in a public speaking class.  Aced the tests, got ovations for my speech...got a B in the class.  Found out the teacher didn't like men doing better that the women...lol.

I was going to ask her why the next year but she left for another school.

I still don't think allowing to argue that your grade over political views will lead to anything but trouble.

Okay, so both of us have been touched by at least perceived political bias in the classroom in higher education.  That proves nothing, but is indicative that the case in Arizona may have some possible merit.  I agree with you that allowing grades to be argued upon political bias only opens up the doors for a pandora's box of reasons to argue a grade.  Perhaps higher education in general should take this as an early warning sign that it's time to reign in the activists among the educating community and go back to a "neutral is best" stance on presenting education to people that spend large amounts of money to attain?

[GMDino]

(03-15-2024, 08:23 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Okay, so both of us have been touched by at least perceived political bias in the classroom in higher education.  That proves nothing, but is indicative that the case in Arizona may have some possible merit.  I agree with you that allowing grades to be argued upon political bias only opens up the doors for a pandora's box of reasons to argue a grade.  Perhaps higher education in general should take this as an early warning sign that it's time to reign in the activists among the educating community and go back to a "neutral is best" stance on presenting education to people that spend large amounts of money to attain?

Or we can have students take it as a warning that not everyone will agree with you, not everyone who disagrees is an activist, and its ok to get a B instead of an A.

[SunsetBengal]

(03-15-2024, 08:32 PM)GMDino Wrote: Or we can have students take it as a warning that not everyone will agree with you, not everyone who disagrees is an activist, and its ok to get a B instead of an A.

So, you are fine with political bias in the educational process that people pay for?  Everyone should just "get used to it"??

[GMDino]

(03-15-2024, 08:35 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: So, you are fine with political bias in the educational process that people pay for?  Everyone should just "get used to it"??

lol...no.

I don't think it's as widespread and intrusive as many would like to think it is.  I was taught by a nun in college who didn't like me either.  It wasn't politics she was just a *****.

And I think crying "politics" every time something doesn't go our way will make it worse.

[SunsetBengal]

(03-15-2024, 08:44 PM)GMDino Wrote: lol...no.

I don't think it's as widespread and intrusive as many would like to think it is.  I was taught by a nun in college who didn't like me either.  It wasn't politics she was just a *****.

And I think crying "politics" every time something doesn't go our way will make it worse.

Great, so you agree that college professors should not teach with political bias?

[GMDino]

(03-15-2024, 08:52 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Great, so you agree that college professors should not teach with political bias?

I agree they should not, but I don't think its a huge problem.  And I also think that *thinking* it is political bias is the reason for a bad grade is wrongheaded.  And a law to cover it is even worse.

Edit to add that every teacher I ever had probably had their own bias slip in to what they taught and how they taught sooner or later. Some I recognized and some I did not. Some I liked and some I did not.

[Forever Spinning Vinyl]

(03-15-2024, 07:47 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Anecdotal, but who cares, I'm going to tell it anyway.  I took a lit class taught by an obviously liberal female professor my Sophomore year.  We were asked to write reviews of assigned readings and interpret the message we took from the piece.  I started the class earnestly, putting serious thought and effort into my reviews and expressing my true feelings on what I felt from the author's message.  I ended up with B- most times.  A friend of mine suggested "faking" a review, meaning write it how she would want to you feel from the assignment.  Trust me, that ended up being tougher to do than just letting my own thoughts roll, but I gave it a shot.  Ended up with an A in that class.

So, the moral of my anecdote is to let you know that there is indeed such a thing as political bias when it comes to grading in higher education.

Or, it could be that you're set in your ways, she got you to finally think outside of your box and then rewarded you for it. I always viewed teachers as people that are to expand on who you are, not to amplify all that you've become to this point. Kind of like how Haiku is really only taught in school to teach you a different way of looking at things, to possibly help you with problem solving later in life.

[Belsnickel]

Are there professors that grade in a biased manner? 100%. It isn't always political, but it will always exist because they are human. Working in academia I am constantly around faculty and believe me, the non-faculty employees in higher education have even worse opinions of the professors than the general public. One of the most common issues I have seen with grading is not really explicitly political or ideological in a more broad sense, but just more about professors being challenged. So many of them have a hard time with students challenging them, which is itself problematic because the liberal arts is supposed to be about engaging students in the ability to think critically about topics and challenge their preconceived notions, meanwhile these professors aren't willing to continue their lifelong education by doing it themselves.

The university I work at is known as a leader in university assessment. For decades we have been analyzing the living shit out of our students and faculty to improve our methods and as a result there is a heavy emphasis on the use of rubrics in grading anything requiring a written component. That doesn't mean all the faculty listen to this--they do enjoy academic freedom after all--but what it does allow is a clear set of expectations for a student when writing a paper and they could then take the grade and plead their case to the faculty member saying that they feel they met the criteria on the rubric. No conversation about politics or anything, just here are the expectations you set, we are in disagreement on how well I met them, let's discuss.

The problem is that it is still fallible because of human involvement. You will never eliminate that. Students should be empowered to speak up for themselves and argue their positions, but laws like this are honestly bad faith attempts at fixing the problem from my point of view.

[*Nately120*]

I was more conservative during my liberal arts education and I still made the dean's list and most of my opinion pieces received good grades.  Be more persuasive.  Cite more legit sources. Whine less.  Threaten to sue less.

[Belsnickel]

(03-16-2024, 10:59 AM)Nately120 Wrote: I was more conservative during my liberal arts education and I still made the dean's list and most of my opinion pieces received good grades.  Be more persuasive.  Cite more legit sources. Whine less.  Threaten to sue less.

Adding: Get your parents involved less.

[*Nately120*]

(03-16-2024, 12:41 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Adding: Get your parents involved less.

My parents were more liberal than I was, so they probably would have shown up and told the professor to go easy on me because I'll be cringing at my own viewpoints fairly soon.  Actually, now that I think about it my family and friends sort of let me bang my head against a wall and peter out of my "angry young man" phase on my own.

[GMDino]

(03-16-2024, 12:41 PM)Belsnickel Wrote: Adding: Get your parents involved less.

(03-16-2024, 12:51 PM)Nately120 Wrote: My parents were more liberal than I was, so they probably would have shown up and told the professor to go easy on me because I'll be cringing at my own viewpoints fairly soon.

My parents only knew my grades when I decided to drop accounting and switch majors.  Short of that it was all on me.

Same with our son right now.  He's paying, he doesn't need or want us to interfere.

As an aside I told both our kids (and my wife when she went back to college) sooner or later you meet that one teacher that you just can't satisfy or make happy with your work. Yu just have to power through it.

This last semester our son had the tenured prof that everyone gives bad reviews on, that the head of the department admits he can't teach in a way that is right but that he can't get rid of. He struggled through, passed the class and is moving on.

[*Nately120*]

(03-16-2024, 12:53 PM)GMDino Wrote: My parents only knew my grades when I decided to drop accounting and switch majors.  Short of that it was all on me.

Same with our son right now.  He's paying, he doesn't need or want us to interfere.

Well I was talking hypotheticals, my ol' man would always tell me he doesn't have the money, the influence, or the inclination to bail me out of bad decisions so I had to be more careful than some of my colleagues. 

[GMDino]

(03-16-2024, 12:51 PM)Nately120 Wrote: My parents were more liberal than I was, so they probably would have shown up and told the professor to go easy on me because I'll be cringing at my own viewpoints fairly soon.  Actually, now that I think about it my family and friends sort of let me bang my head against a wall and peter out of my "angry young man" phase on my own.

I think I told this story in one of the Nazi threads but you reminded me of it and how it relates to college ideas and ideals.

I ran the radio station on campus for two years.  This was 89-91 when terrestrial radio was still a thing.

We were only on campus with a very weak signal but it was more for the practice than to influence the listening audience...lol.

Anyway a "dispute" came up at a meeting near the end of my senior year because a bunch of the younger students wanted us to reformat the station to all "alternative" or music that all the other college stations were playing.  At the time we let each show pick their own music format.  Again, the idea was to practice and make something people might want to listen two for two hours a week.

Their idea got voted down.  A full vote of the members of the station decided that allowing people to do what they want vs forcing one format on them would allow for more people to want to be involved.

Not long after I found a note taped to the station door that called me a Nazi for "forcing my views" on everyone.

Again, we all voted.  And my "view" was to not force anyone's views on anyone.  They could still do their music we just were not going to make everyone do it.

My response, written on the bottom of the note and left in the same spot, was a section of Billy Joel's "Angry Young Man":

Quote:I believe I've passed the age of consciousness
And righteous rage
I found that just surviving was a noble fight
I once believed in causes too
I had my pointless point of view
And life went on no matter who was wrong or right

I noticed less arguing after that.

Some of those same kids are on FB now, and we have mutual friends.  They seem to have matured a good bit and want to allow people to be and do what they want as long as they aren't hurting someone else.

People grow, view change.  A little push back never hurt anyone when there is a mutual understanding.

[Belsnickel]

(03-16-2024, 12:51 PM)Nately120 Wrote: My parents were more liberal than I was, so they probably would have shown up and told the professor to go easy on me because I'll be cringing at my own viewpoints fairly soon.  Actually, now that I think about it my family and friends sort of let me bang my head against a wall and peter out of my "angry young man" phase on my own.

(03-16-2024, 12:53 PM)GMDino Wrote: My parents only knew my grades when I decided to drop accounting and switch majors.  Short of that it was all on me.

Same with our son right now.  He's paying, he doesn't need or want us to interfere.

As an aside I told both our kids (and my wife when she went back to college) sooner or later you meet that one teacher that you just can't satisfy or make happy with your work. Yu just have to power through it.

This last semester our son had the tenured prof that everyone gives bad reviews on, that the head of the department admits he can't teach in a way that is right but that he can't get rid of. He struggled through, passed the class and is moving on.

Yeah, I have met too many helicopter and what they now call "snowplow" parents. It's insane.

[*michaelsean*]

I’ve had both kinds of professors. Had one that declared he was a socialist for transparency sake, and then said I don’t care what your beliefs are as long as you make a strong argument. I got two As.

Another professor I just knew to spit back what she said after one day of class.

Would be nice to remove bias for whatever reason, but I don’t see how this law can actually do this. Colleges and universities need to strive to eliminate it as much as possible. If you want free thought, then you can’t punish it no matter what your bias is.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-16-2024, 06:14 PM)michaelsean Wrote: I’ve had both kinds of professors. Had one that declared he was a socialist for transparency sake, and then said I don’t care what your beliefs are as long as you make a strong argument. I got two As.

Another professor I just knew to spit back what she said after one day of class.

Would be nice to remove bias for whatever reason, but I don’t see how this law can actually do this. Colleges and universities need to strive to eliminate it as much as possible. If you want free thought, then you can’t punish it no matter what your bias is.

My experience as well.  My philosophy of political science professor was a self proclaimed Marxist.  If you argued against his positions it was known that he'd give you a bad grade.  I got a C in his class and an A in my other four that semester.  In fact, it was my only grade lower than B in any class in my major/minor.  But this bill?  Ugh, opening up a Pandora's box of crap if you ask me.