There’s Racism In Grading Students, Reveals Book By A Former Clinton Official
A book by a Former Clinton Department of Education official, “Grading For Equity,” contains a crash course on how inequitable grading can lead to “racist” policies.
The $30 book was produced by the Crescendo Education Group (CEG) and it claims to help teachers create “equitable grading and assessment practices.” The book claims that classrooms, in their current state, are not equitable foundations of society.
“Grading For Equity” first goes into how grading homework causes inequity. It argues that homework should not be counted in a student’s final grades. At most, it allows homework to account for an arbitrary number of 5% (of the total grade) and should be based on completion, not punctuality.
A quiz on the Grading For Equity website said, “Including homework performance in a grade rewards students with privilege and punishes those without it. Higher scores among white, wealthy Protestants and lower scores among immigrant groups and African Americans were used both to affirm the ideas of the United States as a meritocracy and to reinforce the validity of the existing hierarchy.”
“Grading For Equity” then argues against assigning points for student participation. It concluded that grading student behavior leads to “inaccurate, confusing, and even misleading” grading.
Lastly, “Grading For Equity” condemns giving students a score of zero on unfinished assignments. It also endorses the idea of allowing students to retake all exams without consequences.
The book tells the story of an alleged student named “Maria,” who frequently turned in late or partially finished homework assignments but performed well on exams. The book claims that this is evidence of classroom inequity.
“We teachers often assign students a zero in the grade book if homework isn’t handed in by the deadline,” the book reads. “However, we don’t account for all the reasons that a student wouldn’t turn something in on time.”
“Grading For Equity” currently has 243 customer reviews on Amazon, with a 4.8 out of 5-star rating. The majority of rave reviews appear to be from teachers and school administrators.
