Parents in Fairfax County are getting upset over schools' new grading scale. What allegedly started as a pilot program at schools like West Potomac High School, according to some parents, is now seen being implemented at other schools in the Commonwealth area.
This new grading scale is called "equitable grading," and what upsets parents is that the program is "inflating grades," and surely would not help prepare students for the real world after school.
Kim Putens, one of the parents whose child just graduated from West Potomac High School, that implemented the pilot program last year, stated that she found out at the end of the school year that her son did not learn anything, even if he was in the four advanced placement classes.
New grading scale for student's proficiency
Fairfax County Public Schools defended their program and said it was designed to provide students additional "opportunities to demonstrate proficiency."
In a statement they gave Fox 5, they said that their goal is to ensure students' grades are based on demonstrated achievement, knowledge, and skill proficiency. They use grading practices like reassessments and "reasonable late-work policies" to ensure students are taking a positive path as they demonstrate their learning.
For them, it is unbiased, partial, and proficient when students are allowed to have unlimited retakes of tests and allowed to turn in their homework beyond deadlines.
Langley High School parent Glenn Miller cannot believe that this is what the school is currently implementing. He said that his kid's school district was not transparent about the changes in the grading system. Parents just found out through emails from a parent's Freedom of Information Act request.
He further expressed that allowing students to turn in their homework late creates this impression in kids that, in the real world, it is okay if they do not meet the deadlines. What upsets him the most is that a student's lowest score in an exam is 50. The students get 50 if they get everything wrong. The students get 50 even if they do not turn the exam in.
Parents are for academic excellence
Allegedly, the pilot program was adopted from Joe Feldman's book "Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms," whose books were allegedly purchased by the school district for a teacher's summer camp.
In a Harvard Ed Magazine interview in 2019, Feldman explained that equitable grading had three primary elements: "accuracy, bias-resistance, and intrinsic motivation."
The grading system must "counteract institutional biases that have historically rewarded students with privilege and punished those without, and also must protect student grades from our own implicit biases. (It) must stop using points to reward or punish, but instead should teach students the connection between means of learning and the ends - how doing homework is valuable not because of how many points the teacher doles out, but because those actions improve a student's learning," Feldman further explained.
Putens, however, said that instead of the school district setting lower expectations for students, they need to prepare and provide students with tools they can utilize to succeed. There should be academic excellence and raised standards. Give every student the opportunity to be excellent because she knows they can be as a parent.
The school district said that the changes on the grading scale were made based on stakeholder feedback. They assured parents that they are continually working to improve their grading practices with the students' best interests.
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