“Equity Grading”

[Anonymous]

If your kid is foing fine, why do you care if other kids need extra time to get to a simar point? Play your own game.

[Anonymous]

My DD is dreading next year bc of this (an LBSS student like Op's kid).

She says it's unfair to her and her peers who actually work hard, study, do homework (AND turn it on time), and give their 100%, but the grades won't reflect that bc it'll be watered down and shifted. All bc the teachers/fcps dont want the slackers and lazy bums and others don't look bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lake Braddock is now touting that it’s working towards implementing “equity grading”?

Obviously that’s a buzzword that sounds anti-merit and already has dozens of parents furious. And the people at LBSS who tout this seem to be trying to sing to a choir other parents, like perhaps to the new superintendent.

But what does it really mean? Willing to listen if someone can explain what the positives are, but otherwise increasingly inclined to pull my kids out of FCPS.

OP, can you please link to the wording of the exact policy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Under this plan, no school will identify or award or otherwise recognize individual academic achievements. All GPAs will be averaged but with highest and lowest scores eliminated.

There shall be no valedictorians or public identification of individual student achievement. All FCPS HS students shall start the academic year with a grace-granted weighted GPA of a 2.75 and with the rolling grade book, this GPA shall stand until and unless student meets their Individualized Metric Rubric Standard (IMRS) and submits their monthly IMRS report to their assigned administrator. Once submitted and completed with a parent and guidance counselor signature, an adjustment will be added to the 2.75. Inaction or failure to complete the IMRS shall keep the 2.75 GPA stagnant.

there have not been valedictorians in decades

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lake Braddock is now touting that it’s working towards implementing “equity grading”?

Obviously that’s a buzzword that sounds anti-merit and already has dozens of parents furious. And the people at LBSS who tout this seem to be trying to sing to a choir other parents, like perhaps to the new superintendent.

But what does it really mean? Willing to listen if someone can explain what the positives are, but otherwise increasingly inclined to pull my kids out of FCPS.

OP, can you please link to the wording of the exact policy?

I do not know the exact policy. That’s why I am asking. LBSS is touting its embrace of equity grading on social media without providing the details.

Please do not try to undermine by saying I don’t have the receipts when I’m asking for more information!

[Anonymous]

Read it

https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/19/12/harvard-edcast-grading-equity

[Anonymous]

It's not so much about not allowing late work but more about eliminating a grade for homework, classwork and class participation. The idea is that a kid who fails to routinely do that type of work has a low grade for those areas, and even if he aced a test, his grade is still brought way down. By eliminating all of the other non major work grades, and focusing just on the major work grades, the students are graded solely on what they know, not what they are still mastering. That means if a kid gets a B on a quiz but an A on the test, the quiz is thrown out because the test showed mastery.

Obviously, this hurts the students who put the effort in from the beginning because he gets no credit for that and no grade buffer added in to help raise a lower test grade. Other HSs in FCPS already do this. It should be universal throughout FCPS one way or another and I would prefer it gone.

My niece attends a school that uses this. As a former teacher, I hate it. It punishes the kids who are hard workers but maybe not all As all the time.

[Anonymous]

So many of these questions would be answered if you contacted the school and scheduled a meeting to discuss.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not so much about not allowing late work but more about eliminating a grade for homework, classwork and class participation. The idea is that a kid who fails to routinely do that type of work has a low grade for those areas, and even if he aced a test, his grade is still brought way down. By eliminating all of the other non major work grades, and focusing just on the major work grades, the students are graded solely on what they know, not what they are still mastering. That means if a kid gets a B on a quiz but an A on the test, the quiz is thrown out because the test showed mastery.

Obviously, this hurts the students who put the effort in from the beginning because he gets no credit for that and no grade buffer added in to help raise a lower test grade. Other HSs in FCPS already do this. It should be universal throughout FCPS one way or another and I would prefer it gone.

My niece attends a school that uses this. As a former teacher, I hate it. It punishes the kids who are hard workers but maybe not all As all the time.

I don't know how Lake Braddock will implement this but what you've described is the opposite of equity grading. Those grades for HW, classwork, and participation were added in order to reduce the impact of bad test grades -- as a form of equity grading.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not so much about not allowing late work but more about eliminating a grade for homework, classwork and class participation. The idea is that a kid who fails to routinely do that type of work has a low grade for those areas, and even if he aced a test, his grade is still brought way down. By eliminating all of the other non major work grades, and focusing just on the major work grades, the students are graded solely on what they know, not what they are still mastering. That means if a kid gets a B on a quiz but an A on the test, the quiz is thrown out because the test showed mastery.

Obviously, this hurts the students who put the effort in from the beginning because he gets no credit for that and no grade buffer added in to help raise a lower test grade. Other HSs in FCPS already do this. It should be universal throughout FCPS one way or another and I would prefer it gone.

My niece attends a school that uses this. As a former teacher, I hate it. It punishes the kids who are hard workers but maybe not all As all the time.

I don't know how Lake Braddock will implement this but what you've described is the opposite of equity grading. Those grades for HW, classwork, and participation were added in order to reduce the impact of bad test grades -- as a form of equity grading.

What I described is equity grading. Read the article someone else linked above. If Lake Braddock is doing true equity grading, then it is how I described.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not so much about not allowing late work but more about eliminating a grade for homework, classwork and class participation. The idea is that a kid who fails to routinely do that type of work has a low grade for those areas, and even if he aced a test, his grade is still brought way down. By eliminating all of the other non major work grades, and focusing just on the major work grades, the students are graded solely on what they know, not what they are still mastering. That means if a kid gets a B on a quiz but an A on the test, the quiz is thrown out because the test showed mastery.

Obviously, this hurts the students who put the effort in from the beginning because he gets no credit for that and no grade buffer added in to help raise a lower test grade. Other HSs in FCPS already do this. It should be universal throughout FCPS one way or another and I would prefer it gone.

My niece attends a school that uses this. As a former teacher, I hate it. It punishes the kids who are hard workers but maybe not all As all the time.

It rewards content mastery which is the whole point of education, whether you master the material.

The real world cares about results/mastery not hard work, as a manager I don't care how much effort my folks put in I only care about the end product which is only possible based on mastery of how to do it.

[Anonymous]

I'm sure some Younkin supporters out there will say this is what they mean when they say CRT is being incorporated into schools, and not directly taught. F*@% them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not so much about not allowing late work but more about eliminating a grade for homework, classwork and class participation. The idea is that a kid who fails to routinely do that type of work has a low grade for those areas, and even if he aced a test, his grade is still brought way down. By eliminating all of the other non major work grades, and focusing just on the major work grades, the students are graded solely on what they know, not what they are still mastering. That means if a kid gets a B on a quiz but an A on the test, the quiz is thrown out because the test showed mastery.

Obviously, this hurts the students who put the effort in from the beginning because he gets no credit for that and no grade buffer added in to help raise a lower test grade. Other HSs in FCPS already do this. It should be universal throughout FCPS one way or another and I would prefer it gone.

My niece attends a school that uses this. As a former teacher, I hate it. It punishes the kids who are hard workers but maybe not all As all the time.

It rewards content mastery which is the whole point of education, whether you master the material.

The real world cares about results/mastery not hard work, as a manager I don't care how much effort my folks put in I only care about the end product which is only possible based on mastery of how to do it.

Presumably you also care that the end product is ready for review/delivery by next Friday instead of five months from now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's not so much about not allowing late work but more about eliminating a grade for homework, classwork and class participation. The idea is that a kid who fails to routinely do that type of work has a low grade for those areas, and even if he aced a test, his grade is still brought way down. By eliminating all of the other non major work grades, and focusing just on the major work grades, the students are graded solely on what they know, not what they are still mastering. That means if a kid gets a B on a quiz but an A on the test, the quiz is thrown out because the test showed mastery.

Obviously, this hurts the students who put the effort in from the beginning because he gets no credit for that and no grade buffer added in to help raise a lower test grade. Other HSs in FCPS already do this. It should be universal throughout FCPS one way or another and I would prefer it gone.

My niece attends a school that uses this. As a former teacher, I hate it. It punishes the kids who are hard workers but maybe not all As all the time.

It rewards content mastery which is the whole point of education, whether you master the material.

The real world cares about results/mastery not hard work, as a manager I don't care how much effort my folks put in I only care about the end product which is only possible based on mastery of how to do it.

Different poster here... I hear you and I'm the same with the people I manage. The difference is that out here in the real world, the results are often not as clear-cut like it is for a test. Also, resources and schedules have some elasticity, so capable people often have ample opportunities to adjust course to achieve the desired result. Taking a test in a class is different, and a student can have a bad day or week. I view homework and class participation as things that the student can do on an on-going basis that help mitigate the effects of a bombed test. Another consideration is that before they are adults, students have to be taught how to regulate themselves in their daily activities. While we give adults the freedom to regulate themselves, it's because of our trust that their education have taught them the necessary skills. Therefore, it's important for students to learn and demonstrate these skills through consistent homework completion and class participation.

[Anonymous]

Ok, so if you get an A on the quiz but a B on the final test for the quarter, what then? I can see how relying on one test at the end is also tough - what if you had a bad day? I miss the simple days of my HS in the 90s. You show up, do your work, and you get what you get.