Does the Professor Who Gives Higher Grades Receive Higher Student Ratings?

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the professor who gives higher grades receives, in general, higher ratings by students. In this study grades given by 109 instructors in the College of Engineering during the last three years were compared with student ratings. Correlation between the score received by the instructor in a recent student opinion survey and the percentages of letter grades, or combinations of letter grades, assigned by the instructor, has been calculated. No significant correlation has been found. The highest correlation found was between the survey score and the percentage of the sum of A, B, C, and D grades minus the percentage of F grades assigned. The correlation coefficient here was calculated to be 18.3%.