New ‘Grading for Equity’ System in Some California Schools Gets Mixed Reviews

As California students return to school, the debate over a new grading system aimed at eliminating biases in traditional grading continues across the state. The new system, “Grading for Equity,” seeks to remove non-academic factors such as attendance, participation, and timely submission of assignments from students’ grades, focusing solely on mastery of content. “It’s really trying to make the grade only represent what a student has learned about the course,” Joe Feldman, an author and former teacher who popularized the grading system, said in an episode of EpochTV’s “California Insider” show. According to Feldman—who wrote “Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms”—traditional grading systems contain biases that do not accurately reflect a student’s mastery of the material, which equitable grading can address. For example, a student with a lower exam score might end up with the same final grade as a student with a higher exam score by earning higher grades in daily assignments or completing extra credit work....