First of all, go take a look. If you make it past the foreword, you’ll certainly find claims supported by research. You’ll also find assumptions that could contextualize interpretations as questionable, as well as misleading statements, such as “overall, about half of K–12 teachers in the United States say their school or district has adopted at least one ‘equitable’ grading policy” (p. 10). This is quite the claim when only 958 teachers responded to the survey. And I don’t think this is a typo. So, let’s look at some highlights, starting with a very important finding…

Most teachers (64%) said grades should be based on objective standards, as opposed to effort.
This finding is interesting because the Fordham Institute report is written from the perspective of teachers in the minority (36%) who grade effort, and whose main argument is that student motivation and effort are reduced by policies such as no zeros, no late penalties, not grading homework/participation, and having unlimited retakes. Yet, most teachers know that behavior and effort should not factor into grading, which is highly supported in research literature. It’s almost like the authors are acknowledging how traditional ideas have already fallen out of fashion while continuing to advocate for those very ideas.

Not off to a very good start…

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