San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
SOME ARE SKEPTICAL OF NEW GRADING POLICY
S.D. Unified students may sometimes retake tests, turn in work late
In the fall of 2020 the San Diego Unified School Board decided to transform the way it grades middle and high school students in an effort to be more equitable to all members of the student body.
The policy, known as standards-based grading, encourages teachers to focus less on whether a student turns in an assignment on time and more on whether that student has learned the required material. That means students may be allowed to turn in late assignments or retake tests as needed.
The new policy is seen by experts as a way to make education more fair for students who are socioeconomically challenged or have difficult circumstances at home.
But near the end of a twoyear implementation process, some parents, students and teachers in the district say the rollout has been inconsistent and has had mixed results. They worry the grading changes are creating unintended consequences, like making it easier for students to slack off.
“Either the teachers aren’t doing it, or they’re doing it and it’s a disaster,” said Lisa Barron,
a district parent whose daughter graduated this year from Mission Bay High School, of the grading reforms.
With standards-based grading, teachers stop including nonacademic factors — such as whether students turn in homework by the due date or participate in classroom discussion — in academic grades. Teachers are expected to evaluate those kinds of behaviors in separate citizenship grade, which are not included in student GPAS.
Test retakes are viewed as a way to give students more chances to learn from their mistakes and try again.
The new policy is meant to make academic grades more accurate because they represent only what a student has learned, rather than how compliant a student is with classroom rules. Experts say it also accounts for factors that may be beyond students’ control, like turning in homework late because they had to take care of siblings after school.
Decreased motivation
But many parents are concerned that the grading changes are not so much improving equity for disadvantaged students as they are lowering the bar for all students.
In some classrooms, students are allowed to turn in assignments several weeks past the due date or retake a test multiple times. That’s taking away some students’ motivation to try hard in school, parents say.
And because homework and other assignments no longer count toward academic grades in some classrooms, some students no longer try to complete it because they know it won’t count.
Elissa Hoehn, a parent of a student at Dana Middle School in the Point Loma area, said her daughter used to work hard to get good grades. Now, Hoehn said, her daughter seems to care a lot less about school because she knows she doesn’t have to turn assignments in on time and she doesn’t have to study so hard for a test the first time she takes it.
“Now that she can retake a test and turn in homework late, she’s kind of like, why bother working so hard?” Hoehn said. “She had great study habits and now what I see is she has zero study habits.”
Melbourne Romney, a Patrick Henry High School junior who recently protested the San Carlos school’s elimination of several advanced courses, said he doesn’t think standardsbased grading is fair to students who work hard to get a good grade the first time they take a test.
“Having standards-based grading kind of devalues the students who work hard and get into it the first time. It kind of over-inflates our school’s GPAS as well,” he said. “The effort put in by those students is very different, but the result is the same.”
Getting second chances
Advocates for test retakes say school is one of a few places where people are not allowed a second chance to learn from their mistakes. For example, people get multiple opportunities to pass a driving test.
But some parents worry the new grading practices won’t prepare their children for college or the workplace, where deadlines are firm.
“They’re not learning that they’re supposed to get things done when they’re told to get things done,” Barron said. “How is that going to benefit them out in the world? They’re going to get fired.”
It’s unclear whether student grades changed significantly this year under the new grading policy. District officials said they do not yet have complete grade data for the school year.
“Standards-based grading supports teachers, students, and families in monitoring and establishing clear goals for progress towards grade-level standards,” said Nicole Dewitt, executive director of San Diego Unified’s Learning and Leadership Office. “Over the course of a term, students have opportunities to provide multiple pieces of evidence that reflect the progress they are making.
“We continue to support educators and schools in identifying areas of strength and exploring best practices to refine their approach.”
Implementation by teachers varies
Not all teachers in the district are implementing the new grading policy in the same way. Some are giving students until the end of the semester to turn in late work, while others are giving shorter grace periods. Some are allowing retakes but are only letting students recoup a certain number of points.
Some teachers switched from using letter grades to using number grades on a 1 to 4 scale, with 1 meaning they made beginning progress toward meeting standards and 4 meaning the student showed that they exceed standards. Others stuck with letter grades. And some teachers did not switch to standards-based grading at all this school year, parents said.
California law gives teachers final say in how they grade students. San Diego Unified is leaving it up to educators to decide how many retakes to allow and how long their grace periods for turning in late assignments will be, Dewitt said.
Some families, however, like the new grading system and say it provides students more chances to get a better grade.
Dawn Burton, a parent of two girls at Grant K-8 in Mission Hills, said her daughters have been able to improve their grades by retaking tests when they didn’t do as well the first time as they would have liked. She said the girls have a busy schedule balancing two soccer teams, volleyball, ceramics and other activities, so the new grading policy allows them to avoid being penalized if they don’t get their work done in time.
“By removing that penalty I think it really does allow a child to be judged by, did they master the standard? And not be penalized for late work turned in,” Burton said.
More work for teachers
It’s not just parents who have issues with standardsbased grading — some teachers say it’s creating extra work for them and slowing or interrupting their progression through the content.
Offering unlimited retakes and late submissions means it takes extra time for teachers to design tests for retakes and grade assignments that were turned in late, parents and teachers said.
“I’ve had kids turn in things a month late and it’s like, whoa, what was I even trying to teach? A month is a long time,” said Matthew Schneck, a history teacher at East Village High School and a member of the teachers union’s board of directors.
At that point, Schneck said, there’s little usefulness in giving the student feedback on their work because they learned the subject matter so long ago.
Increasing numbers of school districts have tried and failed to implement standards-based grading in recent years, said Thomas Guskey, educational psychology professor at the University of Kentucky who has long researched how to make grading equitable.
Guskey said he does not recommend allowing unlimited retakes of tests. He suggested that after teachers give a test the first time, they use those results to focus instruction on areas where students didn’t do well. Meanwhile, he said, teachers can provide enrichment activities that are exciting enough to motivate students who did well on the first try to keep up the good work.
Guskey suggested providing just one exam retake, then moving on to the next unit for the sake of time.
Guskey also said teachers should not ditch deadlines completely, and that there should still be consequences for students who turn in late work. But the consequence should not be just for the sake of punishment; it should seek to discourage the student’s lateness. For example, Guskey recommended teachers have students finish late assignments after school, during lunch or during a free period.
To motivate students to do their homework and other assignments, Guskey said schools should include citizenship grades on transcripts, so that colleges see them.
Training spotty
Dewitt said the district started training some teachers in the 2020-2021 school year and offered training to teachers in all middle and high schools this school year. More than 300 teachers attended training last summer, she said.
Still, some teachers, including Schneck, did not get any training in standardsbased grading.
Teachers and district officials have acknowledged that the staffing shortages this school year caused by the COVID-19 pandemic made it difficult for teachers to leave the classroom for professional development.
“It was a weird time to be like, wait, what is the district wanting us to do while we’re scrambling to cover classes?” Schneck said. “I just wanted to survive the year.”
San Diego Unified is working with the San Diego Education Research Alliance to collect feedback from students, teachers and administrators so it can better support students and teachers in transitioning to the new grading policy, Dewitt said.
“We continue to support educators and schools in identifying areas of strength and exploring best practices to refine their approach,” Dewitt said.
kristen.taketa@sduniontribune.com