The evolution of a criterion referenced system of grading for engineering science coursework

In a paper at FIE 2012 Carberry, Siniawski and Dionisiou reported on a standards based grading exercise among undergraduate engineering students. The study caused them to list a number of principles for the safe functioning of standards based grading systems (SBG). They did not find any other American evaluations of standards based grading among engineering courses. Although undertaken in different cultural circumstances a longitudinal study of such grading of the coursework of a public examination in engineering science lends considerable support to the principles enunciated by Carberry and his colleagues. This paper which is based on published and unpublished material begins with a review of changing patterns in terminological usage and explains the different cultural circumstances in which the study was undertaken.