Students in Portland, Oregon may soon be able to get away with cheating and not doing assignments, if Portland Public Schools implements new “fair grading practices.”
If adopted, the new practice will bring a variety of changes such as a new grading structure, not grading homework, not giving students failing grades for not completing their work or cheating, and not grading for “non-academic factors” such as behavior, participation, and effort.
“Not giving a student a zero when their work earns a low grade actually harms the child,” Jonathan Butcher, an education fellow at the Heritage Foundation told Fox News. “You hurt students when you move them from one grade to another without asking the student to demonstrate that they can complete the work assigned to them.”
The initiative stems from grading practices implemented by some school districts during the COVID-19 pandemic that accommodate “inequality in access to curriculum and instruction,” according to a handout first reported by the Washington Free Beacon.
The circular said the goal of the initiative was to standardize practices across districts after disjointed implementation “led to a mosaic of grading practices across schools and across districts that confused students and families.”
Schools in Portland, Oregon are reportedly considering implementing “fair grading practices” that would prohibit teachers from punishing students for cheating or missing assignments.Shutterstock
“Given the dismal scores in reading and math on national comparisons after the pandemic, it’s sad that school districts would implement soft bigotry with low expectations,” Butcher said. “The district’s approach will harm students for life by not being accountable for their behavior and decisions.”
Fair grading practices are currently in the works and are expected to be implemented in the district by 2025, according to the Washington Free Beacon.
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The Hangout states that the focus of students should be on demonstrating competence rather than rewarding students for “playing the school game.”
The handout takes its framework from Joe Feldman’s book “Grading for Equity,” including guidelines such as: not giving students zeros, using a 0-4 scale instead of the traditional 0-100 scale, giving greater weight to recent performances, excluding working groups to grade, allow redoing, develop rubrics and more.
Under the framework, grades should be based on valid evidence and knowledge, “not on evidence that might be influenced by the teacher’s implicit bias or reflect the student’s environment.”
The “biased resident” practices he listed for implementation included using summative assessments, not grading homework or including it as part of the final grade, not penalizing late work, not offering extra credit, not including attendance, effort, attitude or behavior in grade calculations , and gives an alternative consequence for cheating instead of giving zero.
The plan’s goals include determining practices that have been implemented across multiple schools, defining equitable grading practices, creating a roadmap for staff professional development, implementing practices in middle schools and high schools, and more.
Butcher said the document “uses catchphrases from the waking lexicon” such as “implicit bias” and “affirmative culture.” He added that such terms are “difficult to define and not supported by research as an effective practice.”
Portland Public Schools did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
