The Great Grading Caper: The Mystery of Classroom Equity
Why do students fail? Why do low-performing schools exist? How come none of the efforts by our Government and educational experts have worked over the last 50 years?
I have asked the same questions. It’s always been a great mystery. How do we achieve true and real classroom equity?
That’s the goal, right? Classrooms where all students have the same opportunity to learn, the same opportunity to succeed in life. How can we build schools in America that give every student the same access to a quality education?
The problem isn’t with the questions, those are sound. The problem is with the reasons and causes for the problem in the first place.
Before I begin down this path, I must explain that I am alone in this theory. If you are seeking to hear a solution that you’ve heard before, you should not read this article. If you are looking for what 99% of educators believe, you should turn away now.
I am not alone because I want to be alone. I am also not alone because my theories are “crazy,” to be fair, my theories are very practical, simple to implement and just require some professional development training to make them fool-proof and ironclad strong to go up against the most pervasive problem in our Country — an unfair educational system.
The good news is that my theories are effective and simple to implement. The bad news is that doctorates in education don’t like my theories because they reject the great minds of the past. And since I have not joined their “good ol’ club” of doctorate status, I must be stupid. There is an inherent elitism with the doctorate class, and I don’t want to disparage doctorates in education, as I hope to earn one myself one day, but I have more important work to do then sit in a classroom and study outdated and unjust theories for the sake of becoming one of the anointed.
Good ideas always rise to the top and this idea will rise to the top. If it doesn’t then I can be confident in the fact that I did everything I could to try and make things better.
But the climate and culture of our schools must change and they must change immediately.
So here’s the mystery. What are grades?
When I was learning to become a Teacher and when I was in the classroom, I was taught that grades were how you measured your class achievement. And that you were testing students on information they learned through your teaching in class.
But what this philosophy fails to recognize is that the Teacher has a direct impact on student learning and achievement. And not in the way that “conventional wisdom” wants us to believe.
The reason students fail in class is not because the Teacher is bad, or doesn’t have content knowledge, or is lazy, or tenured, or a half dozen reasons that are just angry against Teachers.
The simple truth of why students fail in class is a lack of knowledge about how to earn good grades.
Any student not earning an “A” will tell you — “I don’t know” when asked why they didn’t earn an “A.”
Parents across our country are fighting with their kids or frustrated with their child and the Teacher because they want their child to do better in school and they can’t get a straight answer from their child. What does the Teacher want you to do? And they simply answer, “I don’t know.”
It’s so common an answer, that parents just assume their child is lazy, or is unmotivated to do well in school, but the truth is that your child is telling you the truth. You should trust their answer. They don’t know. And the reason they don’t know is because the Teacher has not articulated how to earn an “A.” The Teacher has made grading the Great Mystery.
What does mystery grading do for schools and students? It prevents student achievement.
Yes, you read that correctly — PREVENTS student achievement.
Now, maybe you can understand why I am the Lone Educator and that Doctorates of Education don’t want to jump on this bandwagon. Because if grading is the problem, then half a century of research on socio-economic factors, and single parent families, and toxic stress are no longer as big a deal. And in one fell swoop, I have made thousands and thousands of expert theories and studies irrelevant.
I don’t mean to do that, it’s not intentional. But sometimes you just have to look at the data and use your intelligence and call it the way you see it.
I have been working in education for 20 years. The vast majority of my students were the “labeled” ones. You know who I’m talking about, disadvantaged, disabled, disillusioned, and disenfranchised.
They did not do poorly in school because they were lazy, they could not learn, they did not care, or they didn’t have support at home. They did poorly in school because if a Teacher used a biased grading policy — they had no hope to do well.
Let’s stop talking theory and let’s talk reality. What is an example of a biased grading policy?
The best example of a flawed grading theory is the Bell Curve.
Just remember, I am alone on this. If you want to jump ship now, I am telling you to jump now.
But what you are about to read, you will not find anywhere else. You will find no studies proving this, you will find no Doctorates of education speaking truth to this narrative. You will just have to trust me that my 20 years of experience and knowledge comes from simple truths I learned from my amazing students who “fought” against the system that tried to keep them down.
If you are unfamiliar with the Bell Curve, it is a theory that simply states that a small number of students can earn an “A” and a small number of students should earn an “F” and the majority of students are distributed in the middle. Hence the Bell curve.
What this theory does is PREVENT student achievement.
I have to admit that I do not understand why I’m the only educator that sees this. I kind of feel sometimes that I’m living in the Twilight Zone — because the Bell Curve is so blatantly inequitable that it’s self-evident. It’s obvious. Yet, every educational expert in America has never studied the negative effects on student achievement the Bell Curve has caused.
But I don’t want to be well-known for being a complainer. I don’t want my legacy to be pointing out the failings of our system. I want to make things better. I want to be remembered for helping children succeed, not sitting on the sidelines.
I’m not sure how many people want to understand the nuances of this problem, so I will spare the vast majority of you with the specific details. What I will offer is a solution.
Grading Rubrics.
Not a flashy answer, I know. Sometimes you just have to do what works. What I learned over 20 years is that helping kids learn doesn’t have to be fancy. The key is to understand what the obstacle the student faces and then come up with a solution that works for them. In many cases, the solution goes against Teaching theory. Yes, I admit that it’s a juxtaposition.
But our job as educators is to help our students, not feed our own ego.
