Joe Feldman, the Consultant Who Sparked an ‘Equity’ Revolution in School Grading – WSJ:
A principal-turned-consultant has built a movement—and a business—on overturning how teachers have graded for generations. His alternative: “grading for equity.”
Joe Feldman preaches that students should be able to retake tests and redo assignments. There should be no penalties for late work and no grades for homework. No points for good behavior, classroom participation or perfect attendance, either.
This “grading for equity” is a big reason public education has gone down the drain.
Grading for equity hasn’t escaped political criticism, though. Connecticut legislators, for instance, have questioned a policy in some districts to set minimum grades for assignments at 50 rather than zero, a common feature of equitable grading. Some schools nationwide instituted the practice only to roll back parts of it.
Teachers give Feldman’s ideas mixed reviews. In Schenectady, some scrolled on their phones during his presentation, while others complained they weren’t sure his approach was practical. It remains unclear whether this form of grading is more effective or even more equitable than the traditional way.
It’s a stupid idea, the latest in a string of stupid ideas that pop up every few years so that educational consultants can sell “new” crap to the public education system. If you’re a teacher long enough, you’ve seen the cycles, you know what this is, and you’d be scrolling on your iPhone too.
When Jake Johnson, a high-school math teacher in Rochester, Minn., learned about equitable grading several years ago, he was eager to give it a shot.
He quickly ran into practical challenges. When students realized they could retake tests as often as they wanted, they began putting off studying, Johnson said. As the year went on, students fell behind.
Rochester made equitable grading mandatory for all teachers in 2020. Many came to resent it, Johnson and others said. Teachers had to grade and regrade assignments, and even create new work for students to retake.
“It was really toxic. It was really bad for student learning,” Johnson said.
Well, no kidding. The remarkable thing is that progressive movements like this one have been able to convince so many otherwise rational people that theirs are good ideas in the first place.
Kent Pekel took over as Rochester superintendent in 2021 and realized he had a problem—frustration with the district’s grading policy.
Coincidentally, he had attended graduate school years ago with Feldman, or “Joey,” as Pekel knew him. Pekel read his old friend’s book but wasn’t persuaded. He worried that, without any incentive from grades, many students wouldn’t complete homework.
Further, he couldn’t find any proof in Feldman’s book that equitable grading works. “People in Rochester kept describing him as a researcher and it as research,” Pekel said. “It’s really more theory than it is research.”
Ethan Hutt, a University of North Carolina professor who wrote a book on grading, agrees. There is no firm evidence that grading for equity is better than traditional methods, he said. It is likely some teachers have found success with these practices, Hutt said, but he would be wary of imposing it on everyone.
He questions Feldman’s claim that traditional grading fails to motivate students. Hutt points to studies showing that students tend to learn more with teachers who are tougher graders.
Low expectations yield lower results. Higher expectations yield higher results.
…Christopher Ognibene, a history teacher at the same school, says equitable grading has eroded students’ motivation. He and colleagues are assigning less homework because students aren’t likely to do it, he said.
Homework is all but dead in Salem-Keizer, a district that has implemented this crap.
Feldman says grading for equity can be, and has been, implemented poorly, especially if imposed without teacher buy-in. Many of the places where there has been substantial backlash, including Rochester, didn’t work with his consulting firm.
This is where the grift comes in. “It would have worked, but you didn’t pay me any money.”