“Equity Grading”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in a MS (not in FCPS) that uses Standards Based Grading. The way they ensure that the kids do homework, etc is that kids are required to turn in these “formative” assignments to be allowed to take the test/other “summative” assignment that counts for a grade. So lots of work they are required to do, but counts for nothing towards their grade.
Also, the school still puts a letter grade on the report card, and there is no consistency in how teachers “translate” SBG to letter grades. Some do so I in such a way that if a kid has 10 level 4s (highest possible) but two level 3s, they get a B. Even if they had 100 4s, if they have more than one 3, they can’t earn an A. Others average grades as before.
Students also need to write something justifying their grade. Shouldn’t it just be objective?
Sure, having a retake opportunity is nice, but mostly this system is confusing & seemingly LESS fair.

This new “equitable grading” they will soon be using in Fairfax, sounds like the opposite of fair and equitable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in a MS (not in FCPS) that uses Standards Based Grading. The way they ensure that the kids do homework, etc is that kids are required to turn in these “formative” assignments to be allowed to take the test/other “summative” assignment that counts for a grade. So lots of work they are required to do, but counts for nothing towards their grade.
Also, the school still puts a letter grade on the report card, and there is no consistency in how teachers “translate” SBG to letter grades. Some do so I in such a way that if a kid has 10 level 4s (highest possible) but two level 3s, they get a B. Even if they had 100 4s, if they have more than one 3, they can’t earn an A. Others average grades as before.
Students also need to write something justifying their grade. Shouldn’t it just be objective?
Sure, having a retake opportunity is nice, but mostly this system is confusing & seemingly LESS fair.

The opposite of this then would be for teacher to not use formative assignments and only have summative assessments. That means no homework, no practice work, and only summative exams or projects. If that were the case, parents would probably complain that teachers aren't doing enough real work if they only teach and grade exams a couple times per quarter. Or they'd complain that there aren't enough data points throughout the quarter to see the student's grade, and then a bad test grade is suddenly surprise and the parents would wonder how they didn't know the student was struggling early on before a quiz or test.

Formative assignments are for continuous assessment and learning by doing, not just "lots of work" and "counts for nothing." Learning is a process like on-the-job-training and not everything needs to be for grades and for checking off a list to get a 10/10. That is a very outdated and frankly juvenile perspective to lifelong learning and teaching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in a MS (not in FCPS) that uses Standards Based Grading. The way they ensure that the kids do homework, etc is that kids are required to turn in these “formative” assignments to be allowed to take the test/other “summative” assignment that counts for a grade. So lots of work they are required to do, but counts for nothing towards their grade.
Also, the school still puts a letter grade on the report card, and there is no consistency in how teachers “translate” SBG to letter grades. Some do so I in such a way that if a kid has 10 level 4s (highest possible) but two level 3s, they get a B. Even if they had 100 4s, if they have more than one 3, they can’t earn an A. Others average grades as before.
Students also need to write something justifying their grade. Shouldn’t it just be objective?
Sure, having a retake opportunity is nice, but mostly this system is confusing & seemingly LESS fair.

The opposite of this then would be for teacher to not use formative assignments and only have summative assessments. That means no homework, no practice work, and only summative exams or projects. If that were the case, parents would probably complain that teachers aren't doing enough real work if they only teach and grade exams a couple times per quarter. Or they'd complain that there aren't enough data points throughout the quarter to see the student's grade, and then a bad test grade is suddenly surprise and the parents would wonder how they didn't know the student was struggling early on before a quiz or test.

Formative assignments are for continuous assessment and learning by doing, not just "lots of work" and "counts for nothing." Learning is a process like on-the-job-training and not everything needs to be for grades and for checking off a list to get a 10/10. That is a very outdated and frankly juvenile perspective to lifelong learning and teaching.

I think formative assignments are important. But I think that if they are required, students should get some credit for them. Relying on grades from just a couple of tests does not seem appropriate, especially for middle schoolers. Stakes are too high.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in a MS (not in FCPS) that uses Standards Based Grading. The way they ensure that the kids do homework, etc is that kids are required to turn in these “formative” assignments to be allowed to take the test/other “summative” assignment that counts for a grade. So lots of work they are required to do, but counts for nothing towards their grade.
Also, the school still puts a letter grade on the report card, and there is no consistency in how teachers “translate” SBG to letter grades. Some do so I in such a way that if a kid has 10 level 4s (highest possible) but two level 3s, they get a B. Even if they had 100 4s, if they have more than one 3, they can’t earn an A. Others average grades as before.
Students also need to write something justifying their grade. Shouldn’t it just be objective?
Sure, having a retake opportunity is nice, but mostly this system is confusing & seemingly LESS fair.

This new “equitable grading” they will soon be using in Fairfax, sounds like the opposite of fair and equitable.

War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Equity is unfairness.

[Anonymous]

equity is just newspeak for handouts to specific groups

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These kids are going to be in for a rude awakening when they have a job.

Eh not really, college is easier than high school and jobs are easier than college. Going from 7-8 areas and bosses down to 4-5 down to 1-3 max.

Plus, with most jobs you are given 40 hours a week to do the work. Imagine how much you could get done if you actually spent 40 hours a week doing work in high school or college.

I thought STEM was harder than HS. Thank God for the curve.

Because I went to FCPS, and took a lot of APs, the first few years of my college engineering curriculum were easier than HS. (Sure, I was learning new/higher level things, but I wasn't having to put in as much effort to learn/get good grades.)

That said, in my Freshman Engineering class (at VT), they took a poll a month in. I was one of say, 20 kids in the 300 person class that thought college was easier than they expected. Most of the class thought college was harder than they expected. So I'm not sure what the rest of the state is doing.

[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.

Yeah, from what I recall these things were specifically given by teachers so that the students who weren't as strong/didn't have as much time to study had stuff in their grades that would boost their scores up, even when they couldn't get As/Bs on tests. (I mean, aren't we seeing the argument that 'just doing tests' isn't fair? Isn't that what people complain about AAP for? Isn't that why some wanted the TJ admission test eliminated? Because standardized tests aren't equitable?)

I'd honestly have been fine with the 'just the test' grading method, but I'd imagine this would hurt minority scores, wouldn't it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Continue to lower the bar, FCPS!

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 is not obvious to me. If you are able, please explain how it hurts those students.

Read the sentence again. It's pretty clear. The students who put effort in get no credit and no buffer for a bad test grade.

Why not? They can also retake tests. As someone said before, it's not a competition, it is about learning. Do colleges look at grades and have to decline students? Yes. But all you should worry about is that you/your child is learning and growing. Do you really think that kid B is going to be competing with Kid A? More likely the ones not putting forth effort are going to be a rung below the high achieving kids that are.

If the kids all basically have the same GPA, then how is the college supposed to distinguish the kid who doesn't put in effort/work/learn it the first time from the kid who puts in effort/is responsible?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in a MS (not in FCPS) that uses Standards Based Grading. The way they ensure that the kids do homework, etc is that kids are required to turn in these “formative” assignments to be allowed to take the test/other “summative” assignment that counts for a grade. So lots of work they are required to do, but counts for nothing towards their grade.
Also, the school still puts a letter grade on the report card, and there is no consistency in how teachers “translate” SBG to letter grades. Some do so I in such a way that if a kid has 10 level 4s (highest possible) but two level 3s, they get a B. Even if they had 100 4s, if they have more than one 3, they can’t earn an A. Others average grades as before.
Students also need to write something justifying their grade. Shouldn’t it just be objective?
Sure, having a retake opportunity is nice, but mostly this system is confusing & seemingly LESS fair.

This new “equitable grading” they will soon be using in Fairfax, sounds like the opposite of fair and equitable.

It now appears the new superintendent, Dr. Michelle Reid, fully supports “equitable grading.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These kids are going to be in for a rude awakening when they have a job.

Eh not really, college is easier than high school and jobs are easier than college. Going from 7-8 areas and bosses down to 4-5 down to 1-3 max.

Plus, with most jobs you are given 40 hours a week to do the work. Imagine how much you could get done if you actually spent 40 hours a week doing work in high school or college.

I thought STEM was harder than HS. Thank God for the curve.

Because I went to FCPS, and took a lot of APs, the first few years of my college engineering curriculum were easier than HS. (Sure, I was learning new/higher level things, but I wasn't having to put in as much effort to learn/get good grades.)

That said, in my Freshman Engineering class (at VT), they took a poll a month in. I was one of say, 20 kids in the 300 person class that thought college was easier than they expected. Most of the class thought college was harder than they expected. So I'm not sure what the rest of the state is doing.

1990s are long past, this is 2022

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid is in a MS (not in FCPS) that uses Standards Based Grading. The way they ensure that the kids do homework, etc is that kids are required to turn in these “formative” assignments to be allowed to take the test/other “summative” assignment that counts for a grade. So lots of work they are required to do, but counts for nothing towards their grade.
Also, the school still puts a letter grade on the report card, and there is no consistency in how teachers “translate” SBG to letter grades. Some do so I in such a way that if a kid has 10 level 4s (highest possible) but two level 3s, they get a B. Even if they had 100 4s, if they have more than one 3, they can’t earn an A. Others average grades as before.
Students also need to write something justifying their grade. Shouldn’t it just be objective?
Sure, having a retake opportunity is nice, but mostly this system is confusing & seemingly LESS fair.

This new “equitable grading” they will soon be using in Fairfax, sounds like the opposite of fair and equitable.

It now appears the new superintendent, Dr. Michelle Reid, fully supports “equitable grading.”

How do we know this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Stewart, who has three children who attend Wakefield High School, says grading homework assignments is vital.

“It gives teachers a sense of what students learned before progressing to the next unit or the next topic,” he said.

Teachers are not using homework to guide their topic pace in the classroom. This is a flat out lie. They have X units to cover and the pace accordingly. If kids' HW shows they need to slowdown the teachers do no such thing. I just left a 9th grade transition night where a biology teacher said, we have 12 units to get through and SOL prep so we do a new unit every 2 weeks and test every 2 weeks. Pretty sure if HW showed the kids were not grasping unit 5, she would not slow down. She has her year set and she has to meet it due to the demands of her higher ups.

Teachers should be using formative assessment to gauge what students understand and/or can do. That is not the purpose of homework. Formative assessment can include an entrance/exit ticket, a warm-up, a mini-quiz, a short recording or video (like in a language class), a problem or a prompt to respond to on a white board, or some other short, narrowly-focused task for students to demonstrate what they understand and/or can do. Not homework. Homework is for practice and should be counted for completion only.

I am on board with homework is practice and graded for completion only AS LONG AS TEACHERS ACTUALLY PROVIDE FEEDBACK ON IT. Otherwise the students keep making the same mistakes because they haven’t learned from doing the homework.

[Anonymous]

An additional argument for not grading homework is that black kids won't have parents at home pushing them to do their homework or helping them with their homework.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This new “equitable grading” they will soon be using in Fairfax, sounds like the opposite of fair and equitable.

My understanding is Fairfax has already implemented equitable grading.
No grading of homeworks, allowing retakes, etc.