Every student knows the feeling of refreshing the online gradebook, waiting for their grades to be released and updated. Many wonder, “Why do teachers take so long to grade?”
For students, completing an assignment takes effort to meet its requirements. They expect the same level of dedication from their teachers when it comes to grading their work. When scores take a long time to come back, it discourages them, making them wonder how it will affect their grades.
However, students sometimes do not take into account how much time grading takes. Some teachers have over a hundred students and, if every student turns in an essay and expects personalized feedback, it can add up to hours of work.
Robert Rojas, an English teacher, explained how he grades. “It takes me hours, especially for essays,” said Rojas. “Sometimes, it adds up to days, especially when I’m leaving personalized feedback on them.”
Teachers do have a long list of responsibilities on top of their grading. “We have to prepare daily lesson plans. Some of us recycle things from year to year, but some of us try out new ones for our students,” described Rojas. “We have to take attendance. We have to be sure absent and tardy students get caught up on missed work. And then, there’s the grading.”
Rojas gave a clear example of how long it can take just to grade one class. set of 28 essays. “I might spend 10 to 15 minutes on one student, 10 to 15 minutes on another, 10 to 15 minutes on yet another – I’ve just described working for 30 to 45 minutes just reading three essays. If I have 28 students, I’m working for days – outside of school – and they’re waiting for just as long.”
Sophomore Zaria Bedard explained how stressful the waiting period can be. “I feel really anxious, especially on big assignments,” said Bedard. “It’s very frightening. It kind of gives me anxiety, not knowing what I got, because it could either make or break my grade.”
She added, “I spend a lot of time, personally, on my big assignments… So, I definitely think that teachers’ grading should also reflect the effort that students put in …”
However, when asked to consider the number of students each teacher has, her perspective began to change.
“I am not in their position,” said Bedard. “I don’t know what it’s like to have that many students, and that is definitely hard.”
Mallika Srinivasan, Ph.D. a science teacher, shares a similar experience with her grading. “For a class, it would take me about two hours.”
For Srinivasan, she divides her teaching responsibilities between home and work. She explained that lesson planning happens at home and grading happens after school.
“There are days I will stay [on-campus] until about six or six-thirty, and then I will grade over that period of time,” said Srinivasan.
In the end, students must realize that they would rather wait for grades with in-depth feedback, than receive quick grades with little explanation. Detailed comments help them understand mistakes and learn how to improve. This lets teachers show where students struggled and what steps to take next. Even though waiting might be frustrating, meaningful feedback has proven to be more valuable than speed, which shows the real reasons why teachers take longer to grade.
