For “creative” industry professors, about grading expectations

*TLDR: Why do students keep thinking competence, and box checking, equals excellence?*

I teach both in the commercial arts at graduate level, and an art history course at undergrad. More and more students come to me after classes, or during them, confused about why they aren’t earning ‘A’s. I have years of professional experience in my industry, and years of experience instructing students who are at high levels in the competitive field of the commercial arts.

Yet, the ever-increasing amount of nitpicking and bargaining behavior I must deal with each year grows, and I am sick of it.

Grade expectations are in the handbook for the college (anonymized) as follows – ‘A’ grades are exceptional, excellent, with work consistently at a high level of achievement. ‘B’ grades are where course outcomes are met at a high level, and consistently above average. ‘C’ grades are when course outcomes are met, and the student is ready to continue with their grade progress.

Every year, the rubrics get better designed, and more precise. Yet, greater numbers of students come to me thinking that if they check all the boxes in the assignment (do a competent job and don’t fuck it up) then they should have an ‘A’, and not a ‘C’ or ‘B’ grade.

In the visual arts, if you make a solid illustration that has no major faults, but the subject matter is generic and no one would ever buy it, it’s not an ‘A’, it’s a ‘C’ or ‘B’. Your lack of visual library or originality is not my problem, and not something I can teach. Even if you passed color theory, if your color isn’t amazing, it’s not an ‘A’ if your finished illustration has rote color selection. The fact that it’s not color theory class does not mean I’m not judging your color theory.

If a research paper is well-written, but they only use examples from the provided content or basic google searches, it’s not going to be an ‘A’. Even if you passed your ENG100 class with an ‘A’, it does not mean your writing is dynamic or captivating. This is isn’t ENG100, if you want to write ‘A’-level writing, you need to do outside work/tutoring.

I’m honestly sick of holding the line here on excellence – more and more I want to do what most of my colleagues do, which is just ‘A’ competent work so they don’t have to answer emails. It doesn’t help that in this field, grades are **literally** irrelevant. The relationship to professional success, and grading success, has **nothing** in common with each other having seen 10 years of graduates move on to varying levels of success (or lack thereof).

20 years of professional industry experience, I’m still waiting to get a rubric from a client or Art Director – it’s not how life works!