Study: Students with last names at end of alphabet given lower grades
Newsy
New research by the University of Michigan shows alarming findings about how a student's last name can affect their grades.
A new study by the University of Michigan made an alarming discovery that a student’s last name can affect their grades.
When graded alphabetically, students with last names at the end of the alphabet were given lower grades than those whose surnames were at the start of the list.
That means a student with the last name Anderson was more likely to get graded higher than a student with the last name Smith.
Researchers at the University of Michigan analyzed 30 million of the school’s own grading records when it noticed the pattern. The school said that Canvas — the most widely used online learning management system — has a default setting to list students alphabetically by last name.
Researchers also found that those with last names that appeared at the end of the list were given remarks that were “more negative and less polite” on their assignments.
