A week before the end of the first quarter, the CHCCS Board of Education met for a regularly scheduled meeting Oct. 20. The Board discussed Policy 3400, CHCCS’s grading policy. This discussion centered around reiterating the “50-floor” and the miscommunication surrounding it.
The 50-floor, a grading policy established by the Board in March 2021, is intended as a “fair and equitable” district-wide safety net for students by establishing the lowest grade on all assignments as 50 percent.
The miscommunication stemmed from the central administration’s interpretation of the Board’s decision as temporary and thinking that it would expire at the end of the 2021-2022 school year. This led the administration to develop the quarterly 50-floor grading policy present in the first quarter. The 50-floor from 2021 has been active all year, but schools have not been following it due to the administration telling schools to follow the quarterly grading policy.
The quarterly 50-floor policy makes it so that the lowest quarter grade a student can get is a 50; in comparison, the 50-floor established in 2021 makes the minimum grade you can get on an assignment a 50.
The Board shared the sentiment that while teachers need to be considered in the decision, especially with the end of the first quarter ending a week after the meeting, student equity is paramount. The Board didn’t want students to be negatively impacted by the quarterly floor by receiving a failing grade, especially when it was the unintentional product of miscommunication. The decision to reiterate the 50-floor was unanimous among the present Board members.
“The timing of it was very poor, being at the end of the quarter,” said science teacher Erin Shindledecker. “I had to go back and change a lot of grades to make sure that nobody was given less than a 50. To be clear, I actually support the idea of a 50-floor for the [first semester]. But I think a missing assignment should go in as a zero. A kid who didn’t do the assignment shouldn’t get the same grade as a kid who did the assignment, [but got a grade below a 50 percent].”
The opinion that students who don’t turn in assignments should get a zero is one that is fairly common among East teachers. Since the introduction of the 50-floor in 2021, teachers have expressed their frustration with students not turning in work.
“It’s harming our students because it is not holding them accountable for doing their work,” Shindledecker said. “Kids aren’t dumb; they’ve figured out pretty quickly that they can get by doing one or two assignments over the course of the quarter, which ultimately reduces the chances that they’re going to learn the material.”
The studentry of East have varying opinions on the grading policy and how it affects them. But it seems like some students have found a new found comfort in the raised floor.
“I think [the 50-floor has] been a good change, my friends seem less stressed because there is [less fear] of failure. If they miss an assignment they can still make a good grade,” an anonymous sophomore said. “I don’t think it’s making us learn less, it’s just understanding that we [as students] have limits.”
The Board agreed that having 60 points of the 100 point grading scale reserved for failure was too steep and overwhelming to climb out of, saying that raising the floor would make students more inclined to make up work and participate in class if they know they can succeed.
“As a student, the encouragement to know that you can make something up, for me, was imperative to even graduating,” said Board Chair Deon Temne. “[I knew] that if I settled down and focused I could get through it; I could pass.”
The Board says the 50-floor is designed to raise the floor of failure and engage students in schoolwork, but some people say the policy is being taken advantage of by some and having an adverse effect on those students’ participation, creating additional challenges for teachers.
“I [could] see that once my students found out about the [50-floor] the motivation of the students in my standard classes decreased,” said math teacher Shannon McGinnis. “It’s hard for me to get them to focus, to pay attention, to do work. I seriously blame it on this change in grading policy.”
McGinnis says she already had equitable grading practices in place called “Student Contracts,” personalized agreements between teachers and students to increase quarter grades if a student shows improvement in work.
“They start recognizing, ‘Oh, if I work and do my work and do my homework… I’m going to be successful.’ They end up seeing that their work [can achieve something],” McGinnis said.
Having teachers implement their own equity policies is something the Board supports, but it is not something they can rely on for overall equity within schools. While some students may get a teacher like McGinnis, others will not.
“We are a school system, and we as policy makers need to set some guidelines that will work for our students,” said Board member Dr. George Griffin. “We can’t leave it to the point where it is just luck of the draw who you get to be a teacher… The reality is sometimes you hit the jackpot [with a teacher] and sometimes things don’t go so well… I would like to see a policy where [a teacher’s] options are how to make every student successful, end of discussion… not how to hold someone back.”
The Board says they will continue to gather data and discuss the 50-floor and equitable grading. The Board plans on meeting every month and taking a final vote on the grading policy in March 2023.
Image courtesy of the CHCCS Board of Education
