Ledes from the Land of Enchantment

Fair grading continues at schools in Las Cruces, Gadsden

LAS CRUCES – Las Cruces Public Schools and Gadsden Independent School District continue to use grading scales designed to counter the effects of a “0” and give students a greater chance of passing.

The fair grading scale at LCPS middle and high schools means that the minimum grade “F” of a student is 50% as opposed to 0%. GISD recently started grading students on a scale of 0-5 – basically the same idea.

Gadsden first began using a fair grading scale when schools were forced to switch to online learning in March 2020. LCPS implemented its scaling in January 2021.

While studying online, the districts found that students could be temporarily disconnected from the classroom for a myriad of reasons, including the lack of technology to fully participate. According to the old grading system, if a student misses assignments and has achieved a “0”, he can fall so far behind that there is no longer any hope of catching up.

Proponents argue that fair grading gives students who are lagging a reasonable chance to catch up.

Even with fair grading, students are assigned fewer tasks with hard deadlines and are encouraged to do the work at their own pace. When a student falls behind, teachers try to catch up on the student’s attempt rather than punishing them for being behind.

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Now that students are fully personal again, fair grading continues while the districts evaluate their grading guidelines.

Las Cruces schools

Wendi Miller-Tomlinson, assistant director of teaching, learning and research at the LCPS, said the district is maintaining its fair grading scale while reviewing new grading systems that may be implemented later.

“We thought it best not to keep changing the grading scale because it could potentially change again,” said Miller-Tomlinson.

In an effort to improve student performance, Miller-Tomlinson said that when graded fairly, teachers want to see students master a topic, not a deadline.

“Doing things differently just to do things differently doesn’t help, but (we) are really thoughtful about the student’s work, student effort, and involvement,” she said.

Miller-Tomlinson said that since the grading scale was introduced in January, people’s understanding of the fair grading scale has grown. She added that some teachers think more about how a “0” in the grade book will affect a student.

“A lot of students benefited last year just because things were so sporadic for some students,” Miller-Tomlinson said. “It really gave students an opportunity to catch up if they fell behind. I think that’s the biggest impact of taking zero out of the equation.”

LCPS will hold advisory board meetings on its future grading guidelines to allow parents and community members to share their views.

A new grading guideline could be introduced in 2023.

Gadsden schools

Maria Hernandez, GISD’s Chief Academic Officer, gave a presentation to the district’s education committee last week on the district’s new “performance assessment scale”.

Gadsden Independent School District school board members Daniel Castillo, Claudia Rodriguez and Armando Cano gathered for the first face-to-face meeting of the community council in 18 months, held at Santa Teresa Middle School on August 26, 2021.

The concept of this scale corresponds to the fair grading scale.

Hernandez said the name change was due to “political plays” that created tension around the issue.

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“We wanted to make sure that our children really benefit from it,” said Hernandez during the meeting. “Our goal is to support and enrich children.”

In practice, the performance evaluation scale works on a number scale from 0 to 4.9 instead of 0 to 100 or 50 to 100:

  • 0 to 0.9 = does not correspond to the knowledge
  • 1 to 1.9 = below the level
  • 2 to 2.9 = discussion skills
  • 3 to 3.9 = knowledge
  • 4 to 4.9 = advanced

According to the administrator’s presentation, the grades 0 to 0.9 are comparable to the 50 to 59 percent on a standard grading scale.

Hernandez said grade scores are tied to student accountability.

She added that the goal of the grading scale is to make sure that all students are competent, not just that they just pass on the letter grade. Hernandez said the achievement evaluation scale places an emphasis on college and career readiness and the skills that students will take with them into adulthood.

“If you intend to keep a student on an ‘F’ then we’re not doing our part as educators,” said Hernandez. “We really focus on standards. It’s about really looking at what we do and less is more. It’s a skill that has to be learned.”

Miranda Cyr, a member of the Report for America Corps, can be reached at [email protected] or @mirandabcyr on Twitter. Show your support for the Report for America program at https://bit.ly/LCSNRFA.

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