Thread by @Sociologysal

1 For anyone trying to understand why young people are struggling so much (@Literature_Lady @Edu_Historian ), here is how @stevensonhs administration has been grading students since before the pandemic as early as 2012! The crisis has been coming, but Covid made it worse. @ASCD

2 The Stevenson Administration (like Troy Gobble, Eric Twadell and Anthony Reibel) has travelled around the country with Solution Tree consulting to promote these ridiculous grading practices. I say ridiculous because they are not research based or peer-reviewed. #atAssessment

3 They are theoretical ideas bastardized from peo like @robertjmarzano and Gusky but repackaged by administrators who have not taught in the classroom in over a decade. But they happen to be at a high achieving school so ...

4 ... they use the school's success which is largely a product of social class (the district's avg income is $130,000+) to promote their unresearched and un-peer reviewed ideas in order to make money consulting. #edpolicy Believe it or not, here is the grading they are pushing:

5 They call it "EBR" which stands for Evidence Based Grading
It is supposed to be a proficiency-based grading system, sometimes called a standards based grading system. Stevenson branded it as EBR as a way of marketing it as their unique system. It's a marketing ploy to sell it

6 Grades are either: Exceeds Expectations, Meets Expectations, Approaches Expectations, or Still Developing.
A student who Meets expectations is considered an A student. Exceeding Expectations is an A+.

7 Grades are ONLY based on the evidence a student submits - none of the homework, classwork, practice work that a student does should be used to create a grade.

8 Grades should only be based on the subject of what is being taught and what is directly connected to class. I.E. If I teach history, I should not be grading spelling, grammar, timeliness, or anything is not directly the history skills that I am teaching.

9 If a student does not turn in an assignment, the student is allowed to turn it in late.
If a student does NOT “meet” standards, they should be given another chance to demonstrate their ability to meet standards.

10Cheating - If a S is caught cheating, Ts CAN'T flunk the student for what they cheated on! Instead cheating is considered a behavior so Ts can punish the behavior (like w/ a detention) but Ts MUST ALLOW Ss to HAVE ANOTHER CHANCE EVEN AFTER THEY WERE CAUGHT CHEATING! Seriously.

11 Finally, even after a teacher has accepted late work without penalty and given students the opportunity to resubmit assignments multiple times, the student's grade is still only based on the modal score! This means that ...

12...whatever score comes up the most (the mode) should be the students grade for that grading target. I.E. a student might have 5 essays. 3 of them meet standards (As), and 2 are still developing (D/Fs). That student would earn a meets overall which translates to an A.

13 Really, this is what is happening in one of the most influential high schools in America. I think the public, including college professors and college admin and admissions officers have no idea!

14 You can see the documented evidence that this has been a problem for years as I explained in my letter of resignation. All of the evidence is FOIA-able. Here is the letter:
drive.google.com/file/d/1k3SlU4…

15 Current and former students and other teachers agree with me! You can see that here:
docs.google.com/document/d/1aC…

16 And I shared this public statement with the District 125 Board of Education pleading with them for change. drive.google.com/file/d/1rNhFe7…

17 There is a crisis in American education among both students and teachers. Public policy and School admin is failing both of them. And sadly D125 Stevenson High School continues to make things worse, not just in Lincolnshire, but across the country! #edreform #edchat #edpolicy

18 And that is one of the reasons that Ss are struggling in college and first jobs. Schools across the country are reinforcing the latent message that what Ss do in class does not matter. Effort, participation, homework, cheating, attention to detail all don't matter

@threadreaderapp unroll, please