Francisco Duran, superintendent of Arlington County Public Schools
by James A. Bacon
The Arlington County Public School system has designed a sure-fire strategy for ensuring “equitable” educational outcomes — set standards so low that everyone can pass them no matter how little effort they make.
In the process of updating its policies and PIPs (peer intervention programs), Arlington’s school board proposes to change the way grades are administered. As reported by Washington’s ABC-7, preliminary revisions call for:
- No late penalties for homework, because penalties reflect a student’s behavior, not his or her actual achievement;
- No extra credit, because the practice penalizes students with fewer resources;
- Unlimited re-does and re-takes on assignments;
- No grading for homework, because mistakes are vital to learning, and students are less likely to take risks when they fear they will be graded down for making mistakes.
“There’s no labeling of students or ranking of students,” said Dr. Erin Russo, the Principal of Discovery Elementary, during a meeting discussing the proposal. “It’s the ownership of what do I need to work on and where am I?”
Fortunately, for the cause of sanity, the proposal is getting pushback — from teachers, no less.
In a letter to Superintendent Franciso Duran, teachers from Wakefield High School said the proposal would backfire. If implemented, the changes will result in “the decline of high expectations and rigor.” Accountability in the learning process will exist in theory only, and students from lower-income households will suffer the most.
Aside from learning academic skills, write the teachers, students learn how “to develop organizational, time and stress-management skills…. To achieve these ends, students should be held accountable for completing their work in a timely manner and meeting deadlines that were reasonably established by their teachers.”
New content and concepts build organically upon previously mastered content and concepts, the teachers say. Allowing students to manufacture their own sequence of submissions would hamper mastery moving forward.
Students come to school with varying levels of motivation, ability, background knowledge and work ethic, says the letter. “What message do these proposed policies send to students if they do not complete their work in a timely manner and still get 50% for their missing work? What message do these policies send to a student who met deadlines and received a lower grade than a student who ignored the deadline entirely?”
Here’s the kicker: These policies, designed to promote “equity” (or equal group outcomes) will have the opposite effect.
Families that have means could still provide challenging and engaging academic experiences for their children and will continue to do so, especially if their child(ren) are not experiencing expected rigor in the classroom. More specifically, those families can afford to hire tutors and sign-up their child(ren) to attend enrichment activities and camps in hopes of preparing them for the college application/ admission process. Students who come from families which are not as “savvy” or “aware,” will be subject to further disadvantage because they will not be held accountable for not completing their homework assignments and/or formative assessments according to the deadlines set by their teachers: such results are anything but equitable–conversely, they offer our most needy students reduced probability of preparing for and realizing post-secondary opportunities.
If the discussed changes are implemented, instead of holding students to high academic and personal standards, we are providing them with a variety of excuses and/or enabling them to “game the system,” prompting them to expect the least of themselves in terms of effort, results, and responsibility.
School officials say that the proposals are only a “starting point” and teachers will be given ample opportunity to provide feedback.
On the other hand, the proposals have significant bureaucratic momentum behind them. Beginning in September 2020, nearly 100 administrators and instructional staff participated in a book study of “Grading for Equity” to examine grading practices and how they might be made more “equitable.” Informed by these discussions, proposed revisions were drafted in November.
The approval process will last through the summer of 2022 for implementation in the 2022/23 school year.
Bacon’s bottom line: Virginia’s “progressive” educators have given up lifting up the poor and minorities by demanding more from students and their families. Instead, the educators are setting standards so low that everyone can and will meet them.
Anyone not in the thrall of progressive group-think ideology knows this cannot possibly succeed. As the Wakefield teachers rightfully point out, these revisions will prove most devastating to the students they are designed to help. Affluent parents, determined to get their offspring into college, will supplement schooling with outside resources. Poor parents won’t have the resources, or in many cases the motivation, or even the understanding that schools are failing their children.
Governor-elect Youngkin, you say you want to raise standards in Virginia public schools. Take a look at Arlington County. This is what you’re up against.
