Republican and Democratic Professors Grade Differently?

At least that’s what this study says.  Republican professors allegedly give more grades at both ends of the spectrum than do their Democratic counterparts, and also seem to give marginally lower grades to African-American students.

I haven’t seen the study (and won’t, until I can somehow gain access to the journal), but at first blush I have a number of questions.  First and foremost, given that we’re talking about grades given at an “elite” institution (Cornell, this blogger guesses), and we’re talking about the college of arts and sciences), how many Republican professors are there, and in what disciplines are they located?  I’d bet that you have a relatively large number of Democrats and a small number of Republicans, which makes any comparison at least somewhat suspect.  (Of course, the journal’s reviewers surely raised that issue and the authors must have dealt with it.)  But it’s also important to consider disciplinary differences in grading practices.  Wouldn’t it make sense, for example, to compare Republican economics professors to Democratic economics professors, and Republican English professors (if any such exist anywhere) to Democratic English professors?  Without knowing anything more, I’d bet that if you corrected the data for disciplinary distribution, much of the difference would diminish (as it wasn’t all that large to begin with).

I have a reputation as a hard grader, as does the fellow in the office next door.  Our political predilections couldn’t be more different.  I realize that anecdotes are not data, but it seems to me on the basis of my experience that “character” (loosely understood) and discipline have a much greater impact on grading than does partisan political affiliation.