Grade equity at MCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But what happens when the blind submissions reveal poor grades for certain demographics?

Academic performance has more to do with home life and family unit than it has to do with bias in teachers. All this would do is confirm what everyone knows and doesn't want to discuss.

Then the tests themselves are racist. We need culturally sensitive test material!!!

Agree with you on the latter point. Just look at disparities in attendance metrics by race.

I'm all for eliminating identifiers on papers to limit bias in grading. As to culturally sensitive material, I don't see how most classes like Algebra or Physics are biased. That seems like a fool's errand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:MCPS teacher here. We already know which of our colleagues are biased graders. We just can’t do much about it. Showing them the data in our PLC doesn’t help. They have 10,000 excuses and, as their defense of last resort, tears.

+1
Colleagues have a sense of which teachers are biased. It's sometimes really obvious but admin doesn't want to deal with the damage to their own reputation because some of them hired these teachers, the union and the paperwork.

[Anonymous]

I have known only one plainly biased teacher in my life. Suspected many - but one colleague (math teacher) stated openly that he didn't want to see any black students in his higher level classes so he made sure none received the "B" needed to enroll. This was in the 80s and he was probably in his late 50s at the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just don't see it. Most questions are right or wrong. It's not up for debate. 2+2 = 4 bias won't change that.

OP said "subjects like English and History or anything else that requires writing and where the grading is highly subjective."

I just gave a reading and writing assignment to my students yesterday. I was very disappointed by the results. Most of my AA students did not submit and were really struggling with the reading. I want to become a better teacher, but the reality is that many students from low SES backgrounds have been passed ahead without gaining enough skills. I know I can do better, but I am not even sure where to start. It's clearly a attendance/curriculum issue. Not just an equity issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just don't see it. Most questions are right or wrong. It's not up for debate. 2+2 = 4 bias won't change that.

OP said "subjects like English and History or anything else that requires writing and where the grading is highly subjective."

I just gave a reading and writing assignment to my students yesterday. I was very disappointed by the results. Most of my AA students did not submit and were really struggling with the reading. I want to become a better teacher, but the reality is that many students from low SES backgrounds have been passed ahead without gaining enough skills. I know I can do better, but I am not even sure where to start. It's clearly a attendance/curriculum issue. Not just an equity issue.

Black parent here. Were they struggling with the reading or just not engaged or wanting to do the reading and associated work at all?

I find that in our community, there is so much unfettered access to phones that it is absolutely sapping black teens of their imagination, attention and creativity. I mean these kids lose any and all motivation to do ANYTHING other than text message, look at TikTok/Instagram and watch YouTube/Twitch. In white and Asian families, there's a lot more vigilance and supervision around things like screen time and monitoring how much time their kids are using those devices and the impact it's having on their kids' focus and attention spans.

The two could be intertwined as the underlying reason why some of the black kids you're teaching are behind is because of unrestricted access to a phone, that distracts and prevents them from focusing and learning as they should.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just don't see it. Most questions are right or wrong. It's not up for debate. 2+2 = 4 bias won't change that.

OP said "subjects like English and History or anything else that requires writing and where the grading is highly subjective."

I just gave a reading and writing assignment to my students yesterday. I was very disappointed by the results. Most of my AA students did not submit and were really struggling with the reading. I want to become a better teacher, but the reality is that many students from low SES backgrounds have been passed ahead without gaining enough skills. I know I can do better, but I am not even sure where to start. It's clearly a attendance/curriculum issue. Not just an equity issue.

Black parent here. Were they struggling with the reading or just not engaged or wanting to do the reading and associated work at all?

I find that in our community, there is so much unfettered access to phones that it is absolutely sapping black teens of their imagination, attention and creativity. I mean these kids lose any and all motivation to do ANYTHING other than text message, look at TikTok/Instagram and watch YouTube/Twitch. In white and Asian families, there's a lot more vigilance and supervision around things like screen time and monitoring how much time their kids are using those devices and the impact it's having on their kids' focus and attention spans.

The two could be intertwined as the underlying reason why some of the black kids you're teaching are behind is because of unrestricted access to a phone, that distracts and prevents them from focusing and learning as they should.

The phone thing is a struggle for all of us. We take the phones at night and leave them in the basement. But their friends chat all night long. At least one has parents who don't get home until after midnight and they need to have the phone nearby. Kind of a no-win situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just don't see it. Most questions are right or wrong. It's not up for debate. 2+2 = 4 bias won't change that.

OP said "subjects like English and History or anything else that requires writing and where the grading is highly subjective."

I just gave a reading and writing assignment to my students yesterday. I was very disappointed by the results. Most of my AA students did not submit and were really struggling with the reading. I want to become a better teacher, but the reality is that many students from low SES backgrounds have been passed ahead without gaining enough skills. I know I can do better, but I am not even sure where to start. It's clearly a attendance/curriculum issue. Not just an equity issue.

Black parent here. Were they struggling with the reading or just not engaged or wanting to do the reading and associated work at all?

I find that in our community, there is so much unfettered access to phones that it is absolutely sapping black teens of their imagination, attention and creativity. I mean these kids lose any and all motivation to do ANYTHING other than text message, look at TikTok/Instagram and watch YouTube/Twitch. In white and Asian families, there's a lot more vigilance and supervision around things like screen time and monitoring how much time their kids are using those devices and the impact it's having on their kids' focus and attention spans.

The two could be intertwined as the underlying reason why some of the black kids you're teaching are behind is because of unrestricted access to a phone, that distracts and prevents them from focusing and learning as they should.

The phone thing is a struggle for all of us. We take the phones at night and leave them in the basement. But their friends chat all night long. At least one has parents who don't get home until after midnight and they need to have the phone nearby. Kind of a no-win situation.

I'm aware that everyone is struggling, but there's a significant chunk of the black parent population who either:

1) Don't realize it's an issue and don't know they can put limits and/or monitor their kids device usage

2) Minimize and dismiss the severity of the issue even if they are confronted with it

3) Prioritize their kids' liking them or ease of access to their kids' over their mental, emotional and academic wellbeing

As tends to be the case with many things in America, the black community is seeing 2x or 3x worse outcomes when it comes to screentime abuse and addiction within families.

[Anonymous]

We are black parents in a majority black neighborhood. It is a mixed bag here. We control the phones completely and some other neighbors do also. But there are some that let their kids do whatever they like. I'm not ready to say what percentage do what.

But to get back to equity grading the idea is to assure that teachers just look at the work and not at who turned it in. This whole conversation is about who turned the work in, and what might or might not be happening at home, kind of feels like a separate topic?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are black parents in a majority black neighborhood. It is a mixed bag here. We control the phones completely and some other neighbors do also. But there are some that let their kids do whatever they like. I'm not ready to say what percentage do what.

But to get back to equity grading the idea is to assure that teachers just look at the work and not at who turned it in. This whole conversation is about who turned the work in, and what might or might not be happening at home, kind of feels like a separate topic?

If you're not ready to put a percentage on the percentage of black families that aren't managing screen time responsibly, why are you confident that biased grading based on race is significant enough that MCPS needs to take the kind of action you're proposing?

I'd want more evidence of biased grading specifically toward black and brown kids as a distinct problem before committing to such a drastic proposal.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are black parents in a majority black neighborhood. It is a mixed bag here. We control the phones completely and some other neighbors do also. But there are some that let their kids do whatever they like. I'm not ready to say what percentage do what.

But to get back to equity grading the idea is to assure that teachers just look at the work and not at who turned it in. This whole conversation is about who turned the work in, and what might or might not be happening at home, kind of feels like a separate topic?

If you're not ready to put a percentage on the percentage of black families that aren't managing screen time responsibly, why are you confident that biased grading based on race is significant enough that MCPS needs to take the kind of action you're proposing?

I'd want more evidence of biased grading specifically toward black and brown kids as a distinct problem before committing to such a drastic proposal.

You can do the daily WQI tests or you can wait for people to start getting sick and dying. But I suppose people who live off of bottled Fiji water don't need to care as much as the rest of us do

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We are black parents in a majority black neighborhood. It is a mixed bag here. We control the phones completely and some other neighbors do also. But there are some that let their kids do whatever they like. I'm not ready to say what percentage do what.

But to get back to equity grading the idea is to assure that teachers just look at the work and not at who turned it in. This whole conversation is about who turned the work in, and what might or might not be happening at home, kind of feels like a separate topic?

If you're not ready to put a percentage on the percentage of black families that aren't managing screen time responsibly, why are you confident that biased grading based on race is significant enough that MCPS needs to take the kind of action you're proposing?

I'd want more evidence of biased grading specifically toward black and brown kids as a distinct problem before committing to such a drastic proposal.

Whoa! Slow down there. I am one person. Looks like you are mixing me up with someone else? Heck, maybe a couple of people?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But what happens when the blind submissions reveal poor grades for certain demographics?

Academic performance has more to do with home life and family unit than it has to do with bias in teachers. All this would do is confirm what everyone knows and doesn't want to discuss.

Then the tests themselves are racist. We need culturally sensitive test material!!!

Agree with you on the latter point. Just look at disparities in attendance metrics by race.

I'm all for eliminating identifiers on papers to limit bias in grading. As to culturally sensitive material, I don't see how most classes like Algebra or Physics are biased. That seems like a fool's errand.

Word problems in math and physics are often culturally centered.

[Anonymous]

I find the phone issue is universal. Most of the boys are completely addicted. It is also a way for frustrated learners to avoid work so I feel it more impacts boys of color.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:But what happens when the blind submissions reveal poor grades for certain demographics?

Academic performance has more to do with home life and family unit than it has to do with bias in teachers. All this would do is confirm what everyone knows and doesn't want to discuss.

Then the tests themselves are racist. We need culturally sensitive test material!!!

Agree with you on the latter point. Just look at disparities in attendance metrics by race.

I'm all for eliminating identifiers on papers to limit bias in grading. As to culturally sensitive material, I don't see how most classes like Algebra or Physics are biased. That seems like a fool's errand.

Word problems in math and physics are often culturally centered.

Yes, because Black people don't drive cars, throw balls, or need change at the grocery store. Have you ever taken math or physics?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I find the phone issue is universal. Most of the boys are completely addicted. It is also a way for frustrated learners to avoid work so I feel it more impacts boys of color.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

The phone distracts and causes them to give up more easily. We really need to address this as a community.