Going to Court Over Grades

Recent local news reports detailing threats of a lawsuit over a student's school grades no doubt raise concern among faculty. Educators maintain that a teacher should have unfettered discretion to award a student the grade that is earned.

Is that discretion, however, overshadowed by the potential for litigation? How real is the possibility that a judge might second-guess a teacher?

Reported decisions by American courts show that judges are, on the whole, reluctant to enter the fray over a teacher's grading decision. A disgruntled student may always attempt to sue over a grade, but the chances of success are indeed slim.

In Regents of University of Michigan v. Ewing, a student sued the University of Michigan over the institution's decision to drop him from its combined undergraduate-medical degree program.

The student pointed to a number of reasons for his unsatisfactory performance. His mother, for example, had suffered a heart attack eighteen months before he failed a key examination. He also pointed to the more recent break-up with a girlfriend.

Upon the student's request, the University's review board-which had made the decision to drop him from the program-agreed to reconsider its decision. The student was allowed to plead his case personally before the board; however, it ultimately re-affirmed its earlier decision.

The University also afforded the student an opportunity to appeal the board's decision to an executive committee, and once again plead his case in person. That appeal proved unsuccessful as well.

The US Supreme Court refused to accept the student's claim that federal and state law required the University to allow him to re-take the examination that had led to his dismissal. Writing for a unanimous court, Justice Stevens announced, "[w]hen judges are asked to review the substance of a genuinely academic decision, such as this one, they should show great respect for the faculty's professional judgment.

"Plainly, they may not override it unless it is such a substantial departure from accepted academic norms as to demonstrate that the person or committee responsible did not actually exercise professional judgment."

Justice Stevens noted the Court's "reluctance to trench on the prerogatives of state and local educational institutions and our responsibility to safeguard their academic freedom . . ."
A federal court, he urged, is not "suited to evaluate the substance of the multitude of academic decisions that are made daily by faculty members of public educational institutions-decisions that require 'an expert evaluation of cumulative information and [are] not readily adapted to the procedural tools of judicial or administrative decisionmaking.'"

Anticipating the unlikely event of a lawsuit over a grade or other academic decision, a college or university should:

• Follow its policy on appeal or review of an instructor's grading decision. An institution's failure to follow its own policy could well attract a judge's attention.
  
  
• Disseminate its policy. Faculty and students alike should be aware that the policy exists, and know the appeal processes prescribed therein.
  
  
• Ensure that instructors maintain adequate documentation to support a student's challenge to a grade. While the chances are slim that the issue will reach a court of law, documentation that supports a grade decision will be crucial in the course of a challenge under the institution's grade appeal policy.

Published in the Fall 2002 Edition of In Brief