The Americas 'Anti-racist grading' coming to a school near you

[Scottty]

Coincidentally dey'quantrus's grades will still be shit and we will all be told that we have more work to do with ''structural racism'' i:e tear whitey down to they're level.

Almost as if it was never really about helping non-whites at all...

But what I'm seeing is that where the ideological egalitarians used to insist that people were actually equal, that blacks were just as intelligent as whites, women just as capable at maths as men, and so on...
Now they are rejecting such objectively testable measures entirely. Black children struggle with basic maths? Then maths is racist!
And so on.

 

[AnimalNoodles]

As part of the intersectional caste system of "equity", you will see the higher intersectional castes graded using a different curve or with a normalization factor added into the computations for grades. You might also see the higher intersectional castes graded using a different system.

Failing that, grading will be abolished and replaced with a system that rates students according to a set of social objectives. It doesnt matter if said student can perform quadratic equations, as long as said student has participated in discussions about antiracist math in the appropriate way.

Also expect to see work done in groups, where lesser performing students are carefully grouped with higher performing students and they all receive the same grade.

Remember, intersectional social justice has deep roots in neo-liberal credentialism. Its far more important to get the credit than it is to get the skill.

 

[ShadowArxxy]

But absolutely none of that is even suggested in the article, and I don't think it's at all fair to essentially argue that we should ignore what the author actually says and substitute a composite of all the worst ideas ever suggested by anyone on the left. Literally the only thing actually in the article about grading is saying that it's a bad practice to give students grades worse than what they have actually earned due to the teacher wanting to punish them for bad habits like being late to class.

In addition, I would point out that, "Attendance/participation grades are bullshit" is an entirely common opinion across a wide spectrum of students and teachers alike, not something unique to "extreme SJW" positions. Likewise, "make-work homework assignments that don't actually test/show competence in the material are bullshit".

Also expect to see work done in groups, where lesser performing students are carefully grouped with higher performing students and they all receive the same grade.

Group projects are already a thing, and have been for years. They are not in any way a specifically SJW idea. Indeed, group projects are heavily a conservative concept in education, based on the argument that it's important to teach teamwork in a workplace-style format where the grading is "bottom line results" and your boss doesn't care if you made the poor intern do all the work while stealing all the credit.

I should also point out that group projects can be good *or* bad -- at their best, group projects do genuinely teach teamwork, coordination, planning, and making best advantage of different people's different skillsets. At their worst, the overachieving geek does 99% of the work and the students who only want a C anyway can't be bothered to do anything but steal credit and hose the geek on peer grading.

(And yet, cynically, this is an important real-life lesson.)

 

[ShadowArxxy]

Failing that, grading will be abolished and replaced with a system that rates students according to a set of social objectives. It doesnt matter if said student can perform quadratic equations, as long as said student has participated in discussions about antiracist math in the appropriate way.

Cynically speaking, this is the corporate workplace and has been since well before social justice had any traction in it. The corporate workplace doesn't care if you're actually capable of doing your job, as long as you participate in workplace meetings about corporate objectives in the appropriate way (i.e., kiss your boss' ass and spout a lot of corporate buzzwords).

 

[Cherico]

Almost as if it was never really about helping non-whites at all...

But what I'm seeing is that where the ideological egalitarians used to insist that people were actually equal, that blacks were just as intelligent as whites, women just as capable at maths as men, and so on...
Now they are rejecting such objectively testable measures entirely. Black children struggle with basic maths? Then maths is racist!
And so on.

Children raised in a two parent household with their fathers statistically do better in school and in life. Black children follow the same model the obvious solution is to restore the authority, respect and honor that should be accorded to black fathers. It would be easier, cheaper and more effective.

 

[Abhorsen]

Math is math, sure, but teaching is teaching. You don't try to teach kindergarteners in a college lecture setting and then proclaim that they're stupid and lazy troublemakers for not being able to follow along.

You're reverting to ideological truisms against "racial justice" to non-specifically oppose an article which says that teachers should treat students with both fairness and kindness, and provides examples that are completely sensible.

You see, but this is the type of math they are teaching:

One thing we understand from Universal Design for Learning is that there are multiple ways a kid can express their knowing. And so if you know 2+2=4, one way you can express your knowing is by writing it. Another way you can express your knowing is by discussing it. A third way is by creating a model that shows it. A fourth way is by illustrating it and a fifth way is by performing a play. But in too many schools, only one way is considered legitimate. So if you write it, you get an A and that's it. There might be 100 kids in the school who know 2+2=4, but if only two of those kids can write it, then only two of those kids will receive As. That is profoundly discriminatory.

The thing is, a crucial part of math is being able to write it and communicate it with others, at both a higher level and a basic arithmetic level. If my bill for services takes the form of a play, that isn't useful.

The person seems to have forgotten that part of knowledge is the ability to communicate it in a standard, useable form. And that's ultimately important. It's why essays and writing assignments need to exist. Was I crap at them in school, and would have done better in school without them? Sure. Did I have high concept ideas that I wasn't able to express in an essay? Yep. But expressing yourself through writing is a vital part of modern communication, and needs be taught. It sucked to learn it, but it was hugely important that I do so.

Also, his idea that kids shouldn't be shamed for not handing in homework. That's idiotic. Shaming a kid for not doing homework is vital. Basically, homework (including busywork) has the importance of teaching responsibility and organization. It's one of the first times a kid has responsibility. And part of teaching that to a kid is having a variety of consequences for the kid to try to teach them responsibility, so that kids who don't respond to some stimuli respond to others. And some of the kids respond to punishment of no recess, some respond to shame, etc. It's important to engage kids on all these factors.

Finally, the guy just comes across as a leftist blowhard. Calling 'falling behind' a social construct, and thus dismissing it, is stupid. Of course its a social construct, but that's not a reason to dismiss it. The question should be is it a useful social construct, and it is. It allows teachers to sort students on what they need to learn, it can inform principals which teachers aren't doing their jobs (not that they can do much because of unions), etc.

 

[absenceofmalice]

To return to the actual topic of the thread:



I would point out here that he is literally talking about kindergarten level math. It is not at all inappropriate, at this grade level, to say that teachers should focus on whether or not the child actually understands the math operation 2+2=4 and can communicate this in some manner, as opposed to writing in letters on a worksheet, "2+2=4". That does not translate to accepting interpretive dance in the workplace.

(Here's a relevant personal anecdote: I was fully capable of reading by kindergarten, yet the school I was in placed me in a pre-reading group because when we were given a standardized assessment, I marked all the bubbles to the *left* of the correct answer instead of the ones to the *right*. My parents pointed that out in a parent-teacher conference; the school refused to even consider revising the grade or the placement because "the answers are the answers". And that was an expensive Christian private school, not even an overworked public school.)

As for the rest of the criticized article, I would absolutely fucking hope that no one disagrees that a teacher should not give students a lower grade or denying a student needed help due to the teacher disliking the student, which is literally the bottom line argument of the article. The article simply points out that teacher behavior in this matter *is* implicitly tied to cultural stereotypes, because guess which students the teacher is likely to think are "just having a bad time" and need a little extra help and flexibility, and which students the teacher is likely to write off as "bad students" and deserve to be "taught a lesson" by hammering them harshly for the slightest offense?

He says second grade at one point and calculus at another.

 

[Scottty]

Children raised in a two parent household with their fathers statistically do better in school and in life. Black children follow the same model the obvious solution is to restore the authority, respect and honor that should be accorded to black fathers. It would be easier, cheaper and more effective.

I agree that it would be.
But actually solving the problem would be anathema to all the people who've built their political careers on complaining about the problem. The notion of a father having authority over his wife and children is one that many on the Left seem be horrified by. What next, should he lead his family in prayer at mealtimes?
(Yes he should).