(Headline USA) A Portland school district recently issued new “equitable grading” policies, which prohibit teachers from giving students a failing grade for missing work or even if they are caught cheating.
A handout explaining the district’s “rationale” claims the new policies are meant to address “racial disparities in our pass/fail rate in multiple subjects in both middle grades and high school.”
Many of the district’s teachers have already begun “the journey towards equitable grading,” the handout acknowledges. “We need to organize and consolidate our efforts towards common policies to more consistently and better support students and families with equitable grading.”
The new guidelines instruct teachers never to give students a grade of zero. Instead, they are told to provide “a minimum grade greater than or equal to 50% for work that does not meet expectations, is incomplete, or is missing.”
Teachers must also do away with the 0-100 grading scale and replace it with a 0-4 scale, which the district claims is “more mathematically accurate.”
Moreover, students’ total grades will reflect only their most recent performance – not their total work over the course of a semester.
To combat teachers’ “implicit bias,” homework will not be graded, and teachers cannot provide extra credit or penalize students for “non-academic factors,” including attendance, performance, effort, attitude and behavior.
The new guidelines are expected to take effect by 2025.
Erika Sanzi, the outreach director at parental rights group Parents Defending Education, told the Washington Free Beacon that Portland’s “equitable grading practices” will hurt students.
“These equitable grading policies, however well intended, are a disaster for the students who struggle most and for the students who need accelerated coursework,” she said.
Portland joins a number of leftist districts that have abolished grading in the name of equity. California Democrats even recently proposed a bill that would prohibit teachers or administrators from suspending students who display “willful defiance.”
