Dr. Kimberlee Armstrong, Chief Academic Officer of Portland Public Schools, is informed by “her own experiences as a low-income student with unstable housing and the ensuing impacts of that.” She is accordingly “passionate about cultivating a culture of learning, progressive programs, and sustainable intervention/preventative work.” In the DEI aficionado’s latest social engineering initiative, schoolchildren in the city would no longer be subject to most grading criteria — yet another relic of White Supremacy™ — under a proposed policy change.
Via KGW8 (emphasis added):
Portland Public Schools is considering adopting new ‘equitable grading practices’, which would change how teachers grade students.
A handout from the school district said historical data shows racial disparities in students’ pass/fail rate.
The handout also instructs teachers to not assign zeros to assignments that are handed in late, or are missing. It also states that for students caught cheating, they are to face disciplinary action instead of having their grade be penalized.
District administrators said these changes and others would make classrooms more fair and reduce bias.
“What it’s doing is, it’s assessing mastery and accuracy,” PPS’ Chief Academic Officer Kimberlee Armstrong said.
Armstrong said zeros given for missing or late assignments usually throw off the entire grading scale. The handout also instructs teachers to not give less than a 50% grade for any work that is incomplete, late or does not meet expectations. Late work would not be penalized.
“Whether or not a student does things on time is less important than what they do*,” [said] Gayle Thieman, a professor of curriculum instruction at Portland State.
*This is more rubbish in the vein of the “waking up early is white supremacy” narrative.
Related: Social Justice™ Now Claims Waking Up Early Is White Supremacy
There are many angles converging here.
First is the obvious and often-discussed Social Justice™ bigotry of low expectations. Rather than attempting to lift up the students who are below proficiency, they simply lower the standards into the dirt.
Then, with a flick of the progressive wand, everybody suddenly makes the Dean’s List. Just as every cross-eyed, obese suburban kid who couldn’t kick a ball if his life depended on it and spends every game spaced out, playing footsie with himself at midfield, gets a soccer trophy.
This is the path of least resistance, so it’s no wonder that apathetic students, parents, and administrators would find it appealing, especially in the context of the current, wider give-me-convenience-or-give-me-death ethos.
At which point we arrive at perhaps the slothiest of all government employees, the unionized public school teacher. With notable and admirable exceptions who persevere through the bureaucratic morass and the generally poor quality of students and parents, they on balance make DMV workers look industrious.
Why put in the hard work of teaching students when a few keystrokes in Excel can paper over any deficiencies? Thus the kid gets passed from grade to grade like a hot potato, never learning anything really but also, more importantly, never inconveniencing teachers or administrators with their academic shortcomings.
