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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just wait until high school when the real grading for equity starts. This was in latest APE newsletter.

From The Teacher's Lounge:
New Grading Policy "Defies Common Sense," Says 20-Year Veteran APS Teacher

(Editor's Note: From time to time we will offer a perspective written by an APS parent or teacher on a topic of concern or interest for APS. What follows has been only lightly edited for clarity.)

As an APS teacher for almost 20 years, I am well-versed with the policy pendulum swings that occur on a cyclical basis. Different education fads come and go and the Central Office touts its new initiative for a year before abandoning it in favor of another one the next. These initiatives may be well-intended, though burdensome for classroom teachers, but, overall, they don’t radically alter the very core of one’s pedagogy. The new grading PIPs unleashed this summer are a different matter altogether. In the name of equitable grading practices, APS has crafted a policy that defies common sense, completely undermines the ability of teachers to hold their students accountable, and devalues any grades that students earn during the year.
 
For some context, APS has shown an interest in applying more equitable grading practices over the past few years, though these decisions were made at the school level by administration and lead teachers in order to best suit the needs of their student populations. Many equitable grading practices are good ideas. Limiting the weight that homework can count towards the overall grade benefits students who may not have support at home or have to work or take care of siblings after school. Using a minimum grade of 50% for work that has been submitted instead of a zero can help a less motivated student not give up if a few assignments are done poorly. 
 
But instead of assessing the impact of these pilot programs and whether the desired outcomes (which were never really clear in the first place) were achieved, APS immediately swung the pendulum all the way to the extreme and has decreed that ALL students have the right to retake ANY summative assessment throughout the year. (A summative assessment includes things like unit tests, end-of-unit essays, or major projects) For non-educators, this may not sound like a big deal. And at the elementary level, where high-stakes summative assessments aren’t a regular occurrence and grades are not a part of transcripts that get submitted to colleges, this policy may not cause many changes. However, in secondary schools, especially high school, this policy, coupled with the APS policy that “Student grades reflect student achievement and not student behavior,” yields some unintended consequences that are hugely problematic.
 
Last year, if students skipped class on the day of a test or when a project was due, they got a zero. Now, they are entitled to complete it any time before the end of the unit with no penalty. Last year, if students cheated on a summative assessment, they got a zero. Now, they are given the opportunity to complete the assessment “without assistance.” This new PIP erases important tools teachers use to hold their students accountable for their learning, and essentially incentivizes cheating, which sends the wrong message to our students and also creates an undue burden on teachers, who have to first create and then re-grade additional work. 
 
The policy also ignores the reality of upper-level AP and IB classes at the high school level, where many teachers are predicting that the students who will take advantage of these opportunities are NOT the students these policies were created to help. Students who earn a B on a test are clearly demonstrating above-average skills and content knowledge and do not need remediation and a retake, yet they are now entitled to it under this new policy. Students in these classes already earn a quality point on their GPA, but now they can ask to redo any test, essay, or project. This PIP just further devalues the grades that students are earning, and will not accurately reflect what students can do. These classes end with demanding, externally assessed exams that can potentially earn them college credit. Students build up their content knowledge and skills over the year working towards that goal, and this PIP ignores that reality.

Are you an APS teacher or parent interested in writing an op-ed? Email us your thoughts![/quote]

This is just infuriating [/quote]

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