By Alex Newman / September 3, 2025
So-called “equitable” grading, which seeks to artificially boost scores for minorities under the guise of “equity,” has become all the rage in government “education” across America. But despite being used in about half of government schools nationwide today, most U.S. teachers are not fans of the scheme, according to the first major survey on the issue.
“Equitable” grading schemes were first popularized before Covid as PhD “educators” tried to end what they perceived as “racial injustice” and “inequality” in education. Fringe leftwing ideologues claimed — falsely — that any disparity between students with lighter and darker skin tones was evidence of “systemic racism” that had to be corrected.
But with the government’s “pandemic response” fueling even more failure and disparity among “minorities,” the far-left ramblings moved more and more into the mainstream. By 2022, schools and districts nationwide were jumping on the bandwagon, as if artificially boosting scores by handing out good grades for subpar work would help fix the problems.
Most school districts have not embraced the whole scheme — yet. But about half use at least some grading policies considered part of “equitable” grading. These include policies such as no zeros, no homework, no penalties for late work, allowing students to re-take tests and quizzes without consequence, removing participation scores, and more.
Over a third of teachers said their schools follow at least several of those policies, according to the new survey and associated report by the conservative-leaning Fordham Institute. About 52 percent of the almost 1,000 teachers surveyed said their school has adopted at least one element of “equitable” grading.
The report, titled “Equitable Grading Through the Eyes of Teachers,” found widespread dissatisfaction among teachers over the policies. The most unpopular one: refusal to give a student a zero, even when the student handed nothing in. Many districts have started giving children a 50 percent score despite the fact that the students did literally zero work.
Over 81 percent of teachers think that is wrong, saying it is “harmful to academic engagement” in the survey. A stunning eight in ten “teachers of color” agree that the policy is harmful, according to the Fordham report. Over half of teachers said it was “very harmful.”
Some of the individual responses offered by outraged teachers were included, too. “We have the 50 % rule, which I think is ridiculous,” wrote one teacher. Another said, “Being given a 50 percent for doing nothing seems to enable laziness.” A third noted something important: “Everybody gets at least a 50 percent is insulting to the students who work.”
Fordham President Michael Petrilli was not surprised by the responses. “Turns out, teachers don’t like it when the powers that be take a sledgehammer to their few sources of leverage over student motivation and effort,” he said in the foreword to the report. “Nor do they like giving students grades they don’t deserve.”
Teachers are also worried about what would happen to them if they do not go along with what critics blasted as “bigotry” of low expectations. In fact, 84 percent of the teachers surveyed said supervisors in their school would be concerned if they gave too many low grades — giving them strong pressure to engage in what is known as “grade inflation.”
It is not just teachers who are unhappy with the “equitable” grading. Scholars and academics, including researchers at Fordham, have been strongly critical, too. In a policy brief last year called Think Again: Does “equitable” grading benefit students? Fordham researchers lambasted the program for harming students and teachers.
Equitable grading policies, they said, “tend to reduce expectations and accountability for students, hamstring teachers’ ability to manage their classrooms and motivate students, and confuse parents and other stakeholders who do not understand what grades have come to signify.”
Other critics slammed the idea, too. “If you wondered why our students are falling behind other nations and watching test scores drop, this policy is one of the many culprits of the dumbing down of our education system,” said Donald Irvine, chairman of Accuracy in Academia. “At least in this case, teachers are largely not on board, so there is still some hope.”
Yet, some “professionals” in the field defended the scheme. Social worker and “mental health” advocate Elika Dadsetan-Foley, a major proponent of “equitable grading,” said the upset teachers were the problem. They are “tethered to outdated learning models” that measure rather than prepare students, she was quoted as saying.
“Instead of emphasizing exams and grading mechanics, we should empower students to decide how they want to demonstrate their understanding,” continued the activist, who leads a nonprofit group. “Real-world demonstrations of learning not only validate student voice, they also mirror the kind of skills that today’s world demands.”
Much of the push that put these policies in place came from Joe Feldman, author of Grading for Equity and one of the leading figures behind it all. He argues that traditional grading disadvantages “marginalized” students due to “bias,” and that only “equitable grading” can fix it. His ideas have been widely adopted despite the criticism.
The new report from Fordham, released late last month, surveyed almost 1,000 K-12 district schoolteachers from across America. The educators, reportedly a nationally representative sample, participated in a fall, 2024, Rand Corporation “teacher panel.” The news has gained widespread attention since Fordham’s report was released.
It follows incredible developments such as Oregon eliminating academic testing requirements to graduate. In New Jersey, lawmakers went even further, eliminating the “basic skills” test for teachers who want to teach in the state. Apparently, the only credential needed for teaching or graduating is sufficient indoctrination.
The “equitable grading” idiocy is merely a symptom of the illnesses afflicting government education broadly. The truth is victims of government schools are dumber than they have ever been, and it is getting worse. All the fraudulent grading in the world will not change that. It is time to focus on the root of the problem: Government control of education.
For more great content like this, visit FreedomProject Media.
Source: https://libertysentinel.org/even-teachers-hate-equitable-grading-used-in-half-of-us-schools/