Whether you agree or not, it seems pretty obvious to me that some politicians have a vested interest in developing racism. Without racism, many of their current “us or them” arguments fail. So policies that promote racism, under the guise of combating it, are expected. However, I think they’ve really outdone themselves this time:
Faced with soaring Ds and Fs, schools are ditching the old way of grading
Some have noted that the purpose of this policy is to “…help students who had been most impacted by the pandemic, especially Black, Latino and low-income students.” But is this really the right approach to this problem? And what do you think will be the unintended (or possibly intended) consequences of such “help”?
Lowering the bar will only produce a lower outcome for the students that the policy is meant to help. It will not prevent failure; it will simply mask it with the appearance of success. But what will happen when the public – and, in particular, employers – are forced to gauge the readiness of those “helped” by this policy to perform in the real world? When their performance is compared to that of others? What will happen when employers see that on paper their employees are the same, but some cannot perform at the level of their peers? When the only discernible difference between them and their more capable peers is the color of their skin? Do you think that this will reduce or exaggerate racism in our society?
But it gets worse. Another goal of this policy is to “… remove behavior, deadlines and how much work they do from the equation…” for setting grades. But behaving in an appropriate manner, meeting deadlines and completing work are real-world skills. By focusing on the coursework alone and not the social behavior aspects of success in education we are condemning these students to failure as adults. And, once again, it will disproportionally impact those whom the policy is meant to help – Black, Latino and low-income students.
I understand the concern – more students than ever are earning failing grades. But lowering the bar – particularly when it impacts primarily Black and Latino students – will have a long-term negative impact on both the students and racial equality. The solution must be instead to do whatever is necessary to bring all students up to the same bar. And it should not matter why a student needs help; it should be provided based on need and not race or income level. Only then will true equality be attained.