My daughter is in a top 20 university for engineering. I help my daughter with a lot of her work and am very actively involved in her education and she enjoys the help I can provide. One of her classes over the summer is packed and there is a TA a "teaching assistant" that is a PhD student at the University. She has never had a TA before (she is a freshwoman undergraduate) so I suppose we will be running into them more later on. When she approaches her professor for this class, the answer always has been e-mail the TA or ask the TA, etc. My daughter really was hesitant to do this, as the TA is just a student as well. Recently, we were shocked to find out that the TA is actually grading her assignments and exams in addition to the recitation section which he teaches, with only the professor signing off on final grades. While this was disturbing enough, she has gotten really low marks on her assignments which we did together with thoroughness. When she went to the TA's office hours to discuss the grades, the TA refused to change any of the grades. Frustrated with this, we both decided to go in and discuss this with the TA together. I explained to him the amount of work that went into the assignments and that the strict grading was not acceptable. I was disgusted that someone (only probably 25) had so much authority in the grading, and I voiced this to him and requested that all assignments be graded by the professor. He sat there and literally just stared at me as if he was totally disgusted and tired of us and gave very dismissive and curt answers, with no real explanation of what the points were lost on particularly. For instance, on a 10 point problem, my daughter might get a 3/10, and we wanted to know exactly where each of the 7 points were lost (what step), but instead, the grade seemed pulled out of a hat and arbitrary. My daughter then emailed the professor who again insisted she speak to the TA about the grading, but finally consented to have her come in. When she went to the professor's office, she got the same curt answers that it was the "TA's discretion" and that she would not change the grades on these assignments (which constitute 40% of the grade for the class). After hearing this, I was furious and came to see the professor as well, who seemed shocked that a parent would have anything to do with their child's college education or take any part in their life. The professor seemed used to pushing around college kids but didn't really know how to deal with a parent like myself who was focused and on target. We were early to the professor's office hours and me and my daughter carefully went over every concern we had about the assignments and the poor grade she received on the exam. The professor looked it over, but refused to give out even one point, noting that the grading was handled by the TA and that it was mostly subjective and that they just had a "feel" for what the correct grade for these proofs and problems were, but the point distribution was up to the TA. Given this poor response, we filed formal grade appeals with the assistant dean in the college, the dean, the vice provost, and even the provost. All of them refused to take any action until final grades are submitted, but based on her "performance" in the class, the professor says she is in the C range, which is absolutely unacceptable for the amount of work she put into the class. Also, now the TA has stopped responding to our questions, and instead just tells her to come in with questions, probably so its not on record that he isn't helping her. We also filed a formal complaint with the grad oversight organization in the school about the TA to no avail. Who do we need to contact about my daughter's being targeted?

Post edited by bonzibuddy on December 2013