As a fad-filled field, education is unrivaled. The concocted experiments are especially despicable because the subjects are children who act as lab rats for the experimenters. Everything from whole language, new math, Common Core, Social and Emotional Learning, Critical Race Theory, and many others have replaced traditional education in many of the nation’s schools over the years.

A relatively new entry into the nefarious hodgepodge is Grading for Equity, written by Joe Feldman, a former teacher, administrator, and “educational grading consultant.” The book, which made its arrival on the scene in 2018, has been slow to catch on but is now picking up steam. RealClearInvestigations notes that Boston Public Schools approved a shift to equity grading in 2023. In Oregon, Portland Public Schools is planning to implement similar grading reforms by 2025. New York City and Los Angeles teachers have been trained in equitable grading practices. Smaller districts in California, Nevada, New York, and other states have also adopted the program.

In his book, Feldman asserts, “Our traditional grading practices have always harmed our traditionally underserved students.” He adds, “But now, because the number of students being harmed was so much greater, it got people more aware of it and ready to tackle this issue.”

In the Grading for Equity regimen, teachers don’t consider homework, extra credit, or “soft-skill” behaviors such as punctuality, attendance, timely handing in assignments, and class participation. Students are given additional time to complete tests and can retake them to demonstrate mastery or raise a grade.

Director of Education Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute Rick Hess writes that Feldman supports “minimum grading,” more commonly known as the “no-zero” policy. “With this practice, teachers are prevented from assigning students any grade under 50%, often regardless of whether the student even attempted the task. If a student who would otherwise have earned a zero, a 25, or a 45 suddenly gets a 50, that will necessarily increase (read: inflate) that student’s grade without changes in the quality of the student’s work.”

He also notes that teachers have told him that “equitable” policies, such as “endless retakes” and “an end to graded homework,” are “lowering expectations, permitting students to coast, and making diligent students feel like suckers.”

Zenaida Perez, a 16-year teacher in Virginia, where equity grading is in place, says, “At least 30% of my students definitely make less effort. Sometimes, they do not come to school, and I still must give them 50%. That is absolutely ridiculous.”

Typical of true believers, the zealots cow their opponents. Perez says half of the teachers in her Fairfax district, the largest in the state, oppose grading for equity but are afraid to speak up because they fear retaliation.

Many students, of course, will try to game the equity grading system. DePaul University psychologist Joe Ferrari, who has written extensively about procrastination, says 20% of people are chronic procrastinators. If schools remove deadlines with penalties, he says most students would likely delay their work. “People will always gravitate to the easiest path. Humans seek pleasure and avoid pain,” he explains.

Despite what Feldman and other revisionists contend, old-fashioned standardized testing provides an essential source of information for students and parents about student learning, sheds light on learning successes and gaps, helps teachers address students’ unique needs, and provides policymakers with consistent, comparable data about student learning, a significant indicator of college readiness, and pretty good predictors of success in life.

Importantly, a well-administered standardized test exposes grade inflation and graduation rates. In Los Angeles, the nation’s second-largest school district, 83% of 6th graders received A, B, or C grades in spring 2022—even though just 27% met or exceeded the standards on state and national assessments.

In Chicago, the school district proudly announced that its “historic” graduation rate in the 2022-2023 school year was 84%—the highest it has ever been. Yet at the same time, according to the Illinois Report Card from the State Board of Education, in 2023, just 22% of Chicago Public School students met or exceeded the SAT’s college readiness benchmark for English/Language Arts, and only 19% of students met or exceeded the math benchmark.

The education establishmentarians will do anything to discredit low test scores because it makes them look bad. In fact, the teachers’ unions have been working to eliminate any kind of standardized assessments because they know that if they don’t, public fury—especially from parents—could lead to reforms that could hurt the unions. The unions invoke terms like “test and punish” and “high-stakes testing” to put a bad spin on the assessments. But this is like a fat man blaming the bathroom scale for his obesity.

The National Education Association also makes the absolutely baseless claim that testing children is racist. “From grade school to college, students of color have suffered from the effects of biased testing.” The union goes on to say, “Since their inception a century ago, standardized tests have been instruments of racism and a biased system” and that “students of color, particularly those from low-income families, have suffered the most from high-stakes testing in U.S. public schools.”

Instead, NEA wants to promote “authentic assessments that reflect the broad range of students’ learning and skills, including creativity, leadership, critical thinking, and collaboration.” In other words, they want the tests to use highly subjective assessments, which the union will have a heavy hand in controlling. Hence, it should come as no surprise that the NEA supports Feldman’s ideas.

When you need professional help, you call the best doctor, lawyer, or plumber. Right? When you’re driving, you want the other drivers on the road to have passed an objective written and driving test. Making excuses for race, ethnicity, upbringing, or hair color, for that matter, is not part of the equation. Our bumbling government schools need to understand this and prepare young people accordingly.

Grading for equity will disappear at some point, but I’m not holding my breath. And I shudder to think about the next educational fad that will be imposed on our children.

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Larry Sand, a retired 28-year classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network—a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers and the general public with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues. The views presented here are strictly his own.