The Effect of Contract Grading on Student Performance.

This study was designed to investigate the effect of contract grading on the following variables: student performance on a cognitive posttest, final grade received in the course, student attitude toward the course, the amount of assigned reading completed by the students, the amount of time students devoted to the course, and the degree to which students perceived their individual needs to be met by the course. Six hypotheses were formulated and investigated. Subjects were students in two sections of a college course and the sample was replicated using the same course the following terms. Contract grading was randomly assigned to one section and conventional grading was assigned to the other section. The same instructor taught both groups. Contract grading affected student performance no differently than did conventional grading. A recommendation is made that a subsequent experiment be conducted employing a design allowing all that was done in this study while specifying a more accurate definition of conventional grading. The appendix contains the grade contract used in the study. (RC)