SAN JOSE — In the wake of the pandemic, San Jose’s largest school district shifted its grading policies to put more emphasis on tests, evaluations, and projects, a move officials said was supposed to make grading more equitable.
However, the results so far appear mixed, as some students said they feel the system is uneven and harmful, while some teachers say they feel it is a good measure of student performance.
As San Jose Unified School District opened its campuses for the 2021-22 school year, students from sixth through 12th grade were told assignments that evaluate their knowledge of a subject, like tests and assessments, now made up a higher percentage of their overall grade than before. Assignments that build their knowledge are worth less.
Gracie Quanz, a junior and vice president of Abraham Lincoln High School’s student leadership group, said while some students might benefit from this policy, the amount of time it takes to get ready for evaluations drags others down.
“There’s the kids who have extra time on their hands to sit and do (test) prep at home,” Quanz said in an interview. “What about the kids in sports? The kids who watch after their siblings? The kids who have jobs?”
Homework and classwork, sometimes referred to as “formative” assignments, can no longer be worth more than 25% of a student’s overall grade, according to the district policy.
Carla Collins, the school district board president, said the new policy is meant to boost equity in grading practices across schools.
“It’s a move to really grade students on their understanding of content,” Collins said. “It takes away some of the more subjective pieces of grading, things like participation,” Collins said.
“For kids who are not good test takers, I’m sure it really could be something that would cause some concern, but there should be the ability to do retakes,” she said.
The district policy allows schools the flexibility to have each department choose how to execute the new policy within the guidelines, so grading can vary not only between campuses but within each school.
Cody King has been a math teacher at Pioneer High School for six years, and has experienced both the district’s current grading system and prior ones. King says he hasn’t seen a significant change in grades as a result of the new policy.
“I think it is a good system because it’s more focused on assessments,” King said. “I think by doing that, the grade…represents what the student actually knows.”
But Pinak Paliwal, a freshman at Leland High School, said the new policy is “frustrating” and an inconsistent measure of grading.
“Something that one of my teachers did, interestingly, is make the homework worth 0%,” Paliwal said. “Each individual test now is worth almost 10% of my grade.”
Paliwal’s mother, Shallu Bhalla, agrees with her son, saying the policy is “concerning” and puts more pressure on students.
“If you screw up those initial tests, your grade has already gone so much down that there is no recovery time,” Bhalla said.
Much of the district’s new policy is based on examples from the 2018 book “Grading for Equity: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It Can Transform Schools and Classrooms,” written by Joe Feldman.
Teachers had to take online courses created by Feldman and had a Q&A session with the author before the school year began.
Patrick Bernhardt, a math teacher at Pioneer High School, is president of the San Jose Teachers Association. Bernhardt said the most frequent concern he has heard from teachers is the “unanticipated workload increases” from the new policy.
“Teachers are now required to offer students the opportunity to retake or to correct some assessments,” Bernhardt said. He said some teachers are worried there may not be enough time for teachers to do those kinds of retests.
“I think that potentially improves (students’) learning process, because they’re the ones who are now doing kind of the error analysis on a problem, instead of me,” said Bernhardt.
While the district adapts to this new policy, it appears that some students are struggling more than others.
“It’s benefiting some people but it’s drowning others,” Quanz said. “It’s making others feel that they’re in quicksand and they’re falling really fast.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com