'Grading for Equity': Promoting Students by Banning Grades of Zero and Leaving No Class Cut-Ups Behind
Joe Feldman has faced many tough crowds in the course of successfully selling his “Grading for Equity” program to school districts across the nation. During the consultant’s presenta
"...grading for equity offers a path to better grades and higher graduation rates. Its practices include the removal of behavior in calculating grades, the end of penalties for late assignments, allowing students to retake exams, and a ban on zeros as the lowest mark."
Well, if you don't allow students to fail that would certainly reduce the rate of failures [Duh!] and if nobody fails then EVERYONE WILL GRADUATE! Wow! This is GENIUS!
"He says the practices he promotes are a matter of fairness and accuracy in an educational system that’s stacked against blacks, Latinos and other disadvantaged students."
The "logic" here is that students who walk through the portals knowing nothing are "disadvantaged" when put up against students who come in with just a little bit of knowledge.
The real solution for those who follow this guy's thinking is to make A's the "default value," with every student starting with an A and the teacher having to prove that something lower is warranted - without using tests, homework, or any sort of rational grading. This would eliminate the racial achievement gap!
Problem solved!
